The Threat In The Skies: Have Cyber Attackers Boarded The Plane?

The aviation industry is fast becoming one of the hottest areas of interest amongst the cyber community, particularly insurers, as the risk profile to both airplanes and carriers increases. Over the past few months there have been a number of incidents involving cyber within the aviation industry, ranging from industry ‘standard’ breaches of bank accounts, all the way up to supposed incidents of hacking into on-board airline controls. The Irish aircraft carrier Ryanair suffered a breach of its bank accounts in April, with hackers reportedly making off with £3m in funds, which was believed to originate from a Chinese source.