Airport radar crash: Was it a cyber attack?

New Delhi: The two-hour-long radar failure at IGI Airport on Thursday has sent alarm bells ringing both within the aviation and security circles.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)'s probe into the shocking incident will examine the possibility of a cyber attack — the kind that is witnessed by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and cabinet secretariat. It will also check how secure the vital ATC systems are against cyber threats and look at ways to firewall them.
While the probe is still on, top Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials ruled out cyber attack behind the ATC crash. "We made the mistake of not delinking the radar screen — that first went blank — from the others when we were trying to revive it. We should have put the blank radar on simulator mode. Revival always carries the risk of the system crashing," sources said.
Air traffic controllers, who proved to be the real hero on Thursday night by controlling aircraft movements in blind conditions, are also up in arms. They want an independent back-up system that can be switched on in case of all others collapsing.
17/01/10 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Safety Jan 2010