Positive Train Control (PTC) Expands Cyber Attack Surface for Rail Systems
Summary: All North American Class 1 Freight railroads must implement Positive Train Control, a government-mandated safety overlay whose communications infrastructure relays critical data between several thousand components. Meteorcomm, wholly owned by BNSF, Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, and CSX, is the primary supplier of the 220MHz Software Defined Radio frequencies used across most U.S. PTC installations, so a design vulnerability in its radios would likely affect rail infrastructure nationwide.
Bottom line: Because one supplier's radios sit in most U.S. PTC installations, a single man-in-the-middle or DDoS flaw could disrupt communications between locomotives, wayside radios, and back office servers - and Dragos assesses with moderate confidence that widespread delays would interrupt the national rail system and cripple the movement of goods across the continent.
Read the original at Dragos Blog ↗
- Topics
- OT / ICS & Critical Infrastructure
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