4.3 Aviation Safety-Vetting Insider Threats


Vetting Insider Threats

    This week I want to talk to everyone about insider threats to the aviation industry. These are situations where crew members, maintainers, and so on pose a threat to the safety and reliability of aircraft. One of the first insider threats that come to mind is that pilots and crew members can be used as mules for a drug syndicate. Like in 2013, several British Airways cargo workers were smuggling massive amounts of cocaine through Heathrow Intl. valued at around £4.5 million each year. (Baldwin, n.d.) Insiders can also attack the airport databases collecting millions of pieces of personal data and banking information. (Baldwin, n.d.)  These are just some of the threats the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has to deal with.

    While TSA already does a lot to protect the aviation industry, they also have a broad spectrum of constantly evolving security risks they have to monitor. I believe insider threats are hard to traverse because you do not know what someone is thinking or what external factors they have that could cause them to do something illegal or irrational. One of the first things that come to mind is the vetting of the personnel. Some of the information the TSA already asks for is the full name (last, first, middle as they appear on the passport or other government issued ID accepted for travel), gender, date of birth, passport number, and country of issuance and status onboard the aircraft. (Pike, n.d.) Additional data to be provided on the master crew list are pilot certificate number and country of issuance (where appropriate). In future phases of this program, TSA will collect a full permanent address and the place of birth for every person contained in a Master Crew List. (Pike, n.d.) TSA has recently released a road map to deterring insider threats. The three key objectives they announced were, promoting data-driven decision-making to detect threats, advancing operational capability to deter threats, and maturing capabilities to mitigate threats to the transportation sector. (TSA, 2020) The road map also talks about a combined effort with federal, state, and local authorities and industry stakeholders to secure the US ports of entry. (TSA, 2020) 



    Admittedly going through TSA checkpoints are somewhat cumbersome, but it is a requirement for boarding an airplane. The checkpoints are there as one of the 20 layers of protection. (Burns, 2017) Knowing that the aircrew and cabin crew go through the same checkpoints is reassuring. Also, having Air Marshals is a great way to check on suspected flight members. Finally, the best way to help with insider threats is intelligence. Intelligence can be gathered from many aspects, like watching them on video footage around the airport or talking to co-works, friends, and family. Co-works can tell you if mannerisms have changed or overall attitude is different. I believe that flight safety will always be a risk and should be the responsibility of everyone.


Baldwin, N. B. (n.d.). Assessing the Hidden “Insider Threat” to Aviation Security. Morson Talent. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.morson.com/blog/2019/06/assessing-the-hidden-insider-threat-to-aviation-security

TSA Releases Guide to Mitigating Insider Threat. (2020, May 26). NBAA - National Business Aviation Association. https://nbaa.org/aircraft-operations/safety/tsa-releases-guide-to-mitigating-insider-threat/

Burns. (2017, August 1). Inside Look: TSA Layers of Security | Transportation Security Administration. Transportation Security Administration. https://www.tsa.gov/blog/2017/08/01/inside-look-tsa-layers-security

Pike, J. (n.d.). Crew Vetting aircraft crew screening program. GlobalSecurity.Org. Retrieved September 29, 2021, from https://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/crew_vetting.htm

Davies, C. (2020, August 8). Airport security is changing: These are the new TSA COVID-19 rules. SlashGear. https://www.slashgear.com/airport-security-is-changing-these-are-the-new-tsa-covid-19-rules-21621560/

Word Count: 483

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3.2 Aircraft Systems and Flight

Image
  Hydraulic Systems          One of the systems that is crucial to aircraft flight and landing is the Hydraulic system. The hydraulic system controls many of the secondary flight control systems as a primary method of use. The systems usually operate wing flaps, spoiler/speedbrakes, landing gear, and aircraft brakes. They are pressurized by pumps driven by accessory gearboxes off an engine, electrical motors, by hand, or air driven. When a hydraulic system fails, it is usually catastrophic, pouring gallons of hydraulic fluid overboard. I have attached a video of what it looks like from inside a KC-135 when catastrophic failure happens to a pressure relief valve in a system. The second picture is what the valve looked like when I removed it.      One of the biggest fears of losing a hydraulic system is losing the ability to brake once the aircraft has landed. When losing the ability to brake on aircraft, many factors have to be assessed, runwa...
Read more

Air Control Towers and Flight Service Stations

Image
  Air Traffic Control Towers and Flight Service Stations         We all undoubtedly know about the tall round building at airports and probably have some idea of what they do. You probably would be surprised that they are just a small part of the bigger picture of your safety and the safety of others. Air Traffic Control Towers (ATCT) handle airport operations, takeoff, landing, and aircraft flight plans. You probably didn't know that there are about 1.5K Flight Service Stations (FSS) scattered across the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico (Flight, 2021). So what do these entities do? How are they different from each other? An ATCT is usually the tallest building on an airfield and is topped with a glass room that has people controlling what goes on at the airport. The ATCT has three primary operations: ground operations, approving launches, and filing flight plans (Freudenrich, 2021). These operations are done by different people inside the...
Read more