Security News
The TSA has announced updates to its Security Directive to strengthen the operational resilience of oil and natural gas pipeline owners and operators against cyber-attacks. In this Help Net Security video, Chris Warner, OT Senior Security Consultant at GuidePoint Security, discusses how these newly introduced provisions mandate pipeline owners and operators to proactively enhance their systems' security and protect against potential cybersecurity threats in the oil and natural gas sector.
Late last month, the Transportation Security Administration renewed and updated its security directive aimed at enhancing the cybersecurity of oil and natural gas pipelines. The reissued guidance, known as Security Directive Pipeline-2021-02D Pipeline Cybersecurity Mitigation, Actions, Contingency Planning, and Testing, applies to owners and operators of critical pipeline companies and follows initial directives announced by the agency in July 2021 and July 2022 following the highly publicized and disruptive ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline.
Its abilities have been assessed over the past two years, and the system has boosted identity verification efficiency without infringing on travelers' privacy rights, a TSA spokesperson told us. "Right now we are at six percent fully operational capacity," TSA press secretary Carter Langston said in an interview with The Register.
The Transportation Security Administration recently issued new cybersecurity requirements for the aviation industry, which follows last year's announcement for railroad operators. In the aviation industry, operational technology systems are used to control a variety of critical processes, such as air traffic control, aircraft maintenance, and flight operations.
The Transportation Security Administration issued a new cybersecurity amendment to the security programs of certain TSA-regulated operators in the aviation sector, following similar measures announced in October 2022 for passenger and freight railroad carriers. This is part of the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to increase the cybersecurity resilience of U.S. critical infrastructure and follows extensive collaboration with aviation partners.
America's Transport Security Administration, better known as the TSA, has been testing facial recognition software to automatically screen passengers flying across the country in 16 airports. The equipment will snap a live photo of their face and check whether it matches with the one captured on their ID. The pilot program, testing the Credential Authentication Technology 2 system, aims to reduce security screening wait times by automating the process so TSA agents do not need to manually check IDs.
There has been a surge in reports of people getting scammed after visiting TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and NEXUS application service sites, being charged $140 only to get nothing in return. Reports about these scams first appeared in March 2021, and by July, threat actors were abusing Google Ads to promote the fake sites on Google Search and increase their traffic.
The Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration announced a Security Directive that will enable the Department to better identify, protect against, and respond to threats to critical companies in the pipeline sector. "The cybersecurity landscape is constantly evolving and we must adapt to address new and emerging threats," said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
Passengers will now be allowed to travel with containers of liquid hand sanitizer up to 12 ounces. The agency cautioned that the shift could mean slightly longer waits at checkpoint because the containers may have to be screened separately when going through security.
The Transportation Safety Authority has become the latest federal agency to ban the use of TikTok among its employees based on national-security fears over how ByteDance, the Beijing-based company that owns the app, uses the data collected by it. Some TSA employees have used the app to create and post videos that explain the agency's boarding processes and rules, a move that raised security concerns and inspired Sen. Chuck Schumer to send TSA administrator David Pekoske a letter to stop its use, according to a report from CBS News.