The growing threat of cyberattacks and cyber fraud to the trucking industry is very real, FBI Special Agent Regis Billings, during a presentation at Omnitracs\u2019 fourth annual Outlook user conference.<\/p>\n
As reported by Today\u2019s Trucking, Billings said the FBI is noticing \u201ca lot of financially motivated hackers targeting the transportation industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re misdirecting funds into other accounts and sending them overseas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attackers are going after the squishy parts of the organization, the human elements of the organization, and where are the most elements of humans in this industry?\u201d Billings says, referring to drivers.<\/p>\n
Virtually any site that appears to offer something for free could create an unwanted pathway into company computers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are subscribing or using \u2018free\u2019 services, they are getting something from you,\u201d said Sharon Reynolds, chief information and security for Omnitracs.<\/p>\n
Once an opening is created, criminals being \u201clateral\u201d moves, shifting through networks on the way to higher-value targets. Then they sit and wait until the time is right, often after monitoring financial transactions.<\/p>\n
Poorly designed electronic logging devices could be creating paths of their own. \u201cWe\u2019re concerned about the new entrants in the marketplace,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re very, very bad. I don\u2019t think I\u2019m overstating this,\u201d said Ben Gardiner, principal security engineer with the ethical hacking team at irdeto. \u201cThe risk to drivers that are using bad ELDs is very real.\u201d<\/p>\n
Protecting your business involves understanding the threats, and assigning someone to focus on addressing the issues. Then it\u2019s a matter of getting teams to form what\u2019s essentially a \u201chuman firewall\u201d in the form of tougher passwords and best practices \u2013 like typing URLs into an address bar rather than simply clicking on links.<\/p>\n
Business partners of any sort should also be demonstrate a similar commitment to cybersecurity. \u201cWill they protect your data the same as you\u2019ll protect theirs?\u201d he asked. \u00a0In one case a company lost $850,000 after it embraced a new technology without realizing the weaknesses in a partner\u2019s system.<\/p>\n