Sunday, May 14, 2023

Safeguarding airports against cyberattacks: Here’s how technology can help

In January 2023, it came as a new year shocker for air travellers in the United States when a system outage grounded all aircrafts, dampening the holiday spirits in the country. This incident resulted in over 4000 delayed and 600 cancelled flights, and spiralled a global conversation around cyberattacks in airports. 

Talking about the numbers here, global smart airports market size is expected to grow from UЅD 7.7 billion in 2023 to UЅD 19.4 billion by 2033, at a CAGR of 9.7 per cent during the forecast period. It is safe to say that the aviation industry is growing at a fast rate. India, not being an exception, is investing heavily in ramping up airport infrastructure to boost domestic and global connectivity. The country is accelerating efforts to enhance the operational capabilities of airports to advance its economic progress, sustain increasing cargo operations, meet passenger expectations and demands, and make financial gains. Indian airports are also undergoing digital transformation on a gargantuan scale and upgrading existing systems to achieve operational efficiency. 

Airports are high value assets of national importance, that operate 24x7x365, and incidents of cyberattacks therein necessitate achieving cyber resilience to make them digitally secured. Today, as the aviation industry is growing, airport infrastructure is becoming more complex in operations. To meet challenging demands and enhance passenger security along with operational efficiency, usage of the latest digital technologies is extremely important. However, while digitalization of airports unlocks enormous opportunities, it also opens the doors for potential risks and threats which can expose vulnerabilities of a highly digitalized ecosystem. Therefore, prioritizing their cybersecurity with smart technologies becomes the need of the hour.   

It is quite possible for unauthorized players these days to get access to sensitive data, bring down large connected systems, disrupt traffic, cause financial and reputational damage, increase incidents of safety breaches, and security-related hazards at airports. It is the need of the hour to make airports smarter by integrating the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Internet of Things (IoT).

Today, smart cybersecurity systems carry the potential of identifying threats with early detection and real time monitoring of crucial IT infrastructure. It is here that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) bring the convenience of analysing huge data sets coming from digital systems, identifying data patterns, and conducting timely risk assessments to find vulnerable zones and prevent cyberattacks. Apart from early threat detection and real time monitoring, superior digital tools are capable of utilizing the learnings from cyberattacks that happened in the past to bolster security measures for the future.

13/05/2023 Sanjay Sudhakaran/Financial Express

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