EU cybersecurity agency reports threat to rail

The European Union Cyber Security Agency (Enisa) has published its first report on cyber threats in the transport sector for the period from January 2021 to October 2022. The report identifies the top threats and analyzes cybersecurity breaches over this period. It also includes an assessment of threat actors, looks at their motivations for launching cyberattacks, and identifies major trends. It is reported by Railway Supply with reference to IRJ.

Overall, Enisa says that ransomware is the main threat to the rail sector, accounting for 45% of cyber attacks. Data-related threats accounted for 25%, as did denial of service (DoS), distributed denial of service (DDoS) and ransom denial of service (RDoS) attacks. Breach/intrusion and exploiting known IT vulnerabilities each accounted for 15%, while fraud, impersonation and counterfeit, malware and supply chain attacks each accounted for 5%.

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Most of the cyberattacks have targeted railway IT systems, including those behind passenger ticketing systems, mobile phone applications and passenger information systems, causing disruptions, rendering these services unavailable.

In January 2022, a group of hackers launched a virus attack on the Belarusian railway in an attempt to interfere with the movement of Russian troops in preparation for the invasion of Ukraine. The group deployed modified ransomware designed to disable encrypted servers, databases and workstations.

The report states that the increase in the share of DDoS attacks in the railway sector is due to the increased activity of hackers undertaken after the invasion of Ukraine. Pro-Russian hacker groups have claimed responsibility for 2022 attacks on Romanian national operator CFR Calatori in April, Lithuanian Railways and the Latvian operator in June, and Estonian Railways in August.

«Understanding the distribution of cyber threats, motivation, trends and patterns, as well as their potential impact, is crucial if we want to improve the cyber security of the critical infrastructure involved.»

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