Aecom’s future of infrastructure report surveyed over 500 senior executives across three continents. It revealed that 65% thought it ‘almost certain’ or ‘fairly likely’ that hackers would disrupt a connected transportation network – such as train sequencing – and 63% thought there was a high chance of hackers disrupting traffic flows, by attacking traffic lights.

 

“We know that safe, secure and resilient infrastructure is critical to economic growth and social progress,” said the company’s chairman Michael Burke. “The industry must embrace innovation and develop new ways to fund and deliver projects faster, smarter and better.”

 

The report described it as “troubling” that many industry professionals apparently do no feel equipped to deal with the growing menace of cyber attack. It added that three quarters of respondents are highly pessimistic about their peers’ ability to anticipate a full scale cyber event and little more than half feel prepared to manage the cyber threat overall.

 

Infrastructure must be modernised, it went on, and the industry must become better informed about ensuring resilience and arming itself with relevant future proofed skills.

 

♦ Transport firms face fines of up to £17M if they do not have effective security measures in place to safeguard against cyber attack, the Government announced on Sunday.

 

Breaches and system failures will be covered by a Network & Information Systems Directive, and incidents would have to be reported to the regulator who would assess the security measures were appropriate.

 

The National Cyber Security Centre, set up last year, has also published guidance on security measures to help organisations from across the infrastructure community to comply.