Israeli airport opens cyber defence centre

The Israel Airport Authority has opened a cyber defence centre at Ben Gurion International following a dramatic increase in the number of cyberattacks on airport systems. Airport sources said 3m cyberattacks a day are detected by the centre. Some are general spam, which is also sent to many other computer systems in the world, but 250 of them are aimed directly at the airport’s systems such as luggage handling, runway lighting and communication systems that are used by air traffic control. Sources said these attacks are isolated and, if one computer has been infected, it is immediately disconnected from the airport’s system. Israeli sources said Tuesday there are indications that cyberattacks on civil aviation systems will increase in the coming year, becoming a major threat. <br/>