Cyber Security and Business Aviation: What Flight Departments Need to Know About the Biggest Issue Facing Business Aircraft Today

For being what IBM CEO Ginni Rometty calls ”the greatest threat to every company in the world,” it’s surprising how little thought many of us give to cyber security in our day-to-day actions. Instead, we tend to brush it off as a problem for multinationals or something for the IT department to worry about. Yet this is a clear – and dangerous – misconception, as cyber security should not only be a part of every IT discussion, but every business discussion.

Not convinced? Perhaps these statistics will change your perspective:

• 73% of company security experts expect to experience a major security breach within a year.
• Despite the money and resources spent on cyber security, 87% of company security experts believe their security controls are failing to protect their business.
• 65% of security professionals identified phishing and social engineering as the biggest security threats to their organization. All it takes is one person clicking a fake email to give a hacker direct access to all the data on their device and a direct path to your network. Yet, even though everybody claims to be aware of this risk, 78% of us click on the links anyway.
• 97% of applications tested by Trustwave had one or more security vulnerabilities.
• 70% of business respondents think that employees are the biggest risk to the business.

Altitude Doesn’t Make You Safe
Being in a business aircraft doesn’t exempt you from a cyber threat. A common myth is that once the aircraft’s Wi-Fi signal is out of the range of the ramp, it is safe from an attack. Not so. If you can see the internet, then the internet – and the hackers – can see you.

If you manage or maintain aircraft at a business aviation flight department, Satcom Direct strongly recommends discussing your cyber security strategy with your data provider. That way you’ll know what the threats are, how the bad guys do it, and what you can do to protect yourself.