Page 43 - Arkansas Trucking Report Volume 22 Issue 6

Cracking the Code

to Cybersecurity

Why trucking needs to stay alert to cyber threats

By Todd Traub engineering and IT, said hackers using ran-
Contributing Writer somware in pursuit of big money are among
the biggest of the cybersecurity threats. In
It is the era of bots, fake news, hackers May, a ransomware crypto worm called
and international meddling. WannaCry targeted computers using the
Our computers have long been targeted Microsoft Windows operating system world-
by both the malicious and mischievous, the wide, encrypting data and demanding ran-
identity thieves who want to clean out our som payment in Bitcoin.
bank accounts and the pranksters who sim- “The FBI releases an annual public
ply like to throw a wrench into people’s daily cybersecurity report that shares the increas-
lives by disrupting popular websites. ing U.S. monetary loss from cyberattacks,”
The email dumps and controversies of Froat said. “Cyber criminals are working
the last election have underscored yet again toward financial gain. In some cases, it’s
the need for cybersecurity. But in today’s purely industry or societal disruption, but to
automated, app-for-everything world, in a particular company of a particular indus-
which we can turn on our lights and warm try, cyber adversaries are after an easy score.”
our houses with the touch of a smartphone The 1,093 breaches affecting U.S. com-
screen and automated vehicles await on the panies and government agencies in 2016 was
horizon, protecting our electronic devices a record and marked a 50-percent increase
becomes an across-the-board necessity. from 2015, according to the nonprofit
By late 2016, the costs of data breaches Identity Theft Resource Center, and because
had reached an average $7.35 million in the of underreporting there may have been more.
United States, and the average cost of a breach In this environment, the trucking and
rose by 5 percent from February 2016 to transportation industry is as fat a hack-
March 2017, according to information in an ing target as any other. Electronic systems
Arkansas Business article published Nov. 20. within today’s modern trucks make the rigs
In written comments Russ Froat, as potentially vulnerable to a hack as a celeb-
American Trucking Associations’ director of rity’s stash of personal photos.
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ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT | Issue 6 2017 43