FlyWithUs Airlines has started a new low-cost carrier service to link major cities such as New York City with small towns. A few of the airports that service FlyWithUs are located in remote areas and are ill-equipped to handle emergencies.
The airline also has a charter service that flies to locations around the world. In some remote areas, where the airports are small, help may not be immediately available in the event of an accident or some other crisis.
Due to a failure of the air traffic control information system, a FlyWithUs pilot is forced to make a manual emergency landing. The plane skids off the runway and finally comes to a halt in the wilderness lining it. Five people are hurt, and one woman is critically injured. The airport does not have an …show more content…
ambulance on standby. By the time an ambulance arrives from the nearest hospital, which is 150 miles from the airport, the woman is dead.
Question: Could this have been the result of a cyberattack on the transportation industry's critical infrastructure?
Could FlyWithUs have prevented this situation? If yes, what measures could they have taken? Could they have stationed their own ambulance at the airport to handle emergencies? Should their pilots have been better trained to make emergency landings? Select one of the three case studies discussed at the end of Module 6 and respond to the reflection questions.
Scenario 2
The U.S. Army has chartered a flight to Afghanistan in order to transport soldiers needed because of a recent rise in attacks by the Taliban. At a stopover point, FlyWithUs discovers that refueling is not possible because fuel supply lines have been cut due to rebel activity. The team and the plane are now stranded and are waiting for help.
Question: How could information systems have been used to prevent this from happening? What types of security measures are now needed to secure the airplane, its passengers, and its cargo in this dangerous situation? Is there any way in which FlyWithUs could have ensured a fuel supply? Could the airline have arranged to carry extra fuel?
Scenario
3
The IT department has updated the antivirus software on all computers except for this one, because this computer was placed outside the firewall for a short period for trial purposes. Although the computer was brought back within the firewall, the system administrator failed to update the antivirus.
Question: How do you think this situation could have been prevented? Could the IT department have conducted regular inventories of the software on each computer to identify missing patches? Could the IT department have implemented a process to ensure that no computer is moved outside the boundaries of the firewall?