Flights halted at US airports as watchdog warns over hacking threat

Key Points:

• A radio equipment failure caused flight disruptions at several major northeastern US airports, including Newark, Philadelphia, Teterboro, and JFK, due to an Amtrak crew accidentally cutting a fiber line that affected telecommunications.
• A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the FAA has not completed risk assessments or updated security measures against threats like spoofing and jamming of radio communications, leaving US air traffic systems vulnerable to interference and deception.
• The FAA currently lacks a real-time detection system for such threats, relying mostly on post-incident investigations, and uses outdated communication systems without modern cybersecurity protections like encryption.
• Senator Ron Wyden condemned the FAA’s inadequate security standards as a major national security risk and urged immediate implementation of new regulations to secure aviation communications.
• The GAO recommended nine actions, including continuous threat monitoring and formal risk assessments, all of which the Department of Transportation has agreed to implement; meanwhile, international concerns about similar threats persist, with Russia accused of jamming satellite navigation in European airspace.