Hack of UN aviation body ‘exposed member states’

The UN body that sets standards for civil aviation worldwide suffered a massive cyber hack in 2016 which compromised its entire IT system and led to subsequent attacks on member states, according to the US ambassador to the organisation. Thomas Carter, US ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization, said on Tuesday that the ICAO’s network was breached in November 2016 by a foreign state actor, and that the problem was worse than it had previously admitted. Carter did not name the country responsible, but internal documents reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which revealed the hack earlier this year, suggested the perpetrator was most likely a member of Emissary Panda, a group with ties to the Chinese government. Carter said at a speech in Washington: “ICAO systems were totally exposed by a foreign state actor, and two completely independent forensic investigations proved this to be true.” He went on to criticise the organisation for having tried to cover up the extent of the breach after it was reported by CBC. “ICAO’s corporate response was that the reports were ‘over exaggerated’,” he said. “In fact, council members have subsequently learned that ICAO’s network had been compromised for quite some time and that both member states and contractors had to fend off attacks from malware that emanated from the ICAO system.” He added: “The way the hacks — by the way, not just one, but four — were handled was unacceptable.”<br/>