TSA unveils cyber roadmap
The Transportation Security Administration's new cybersecurity roadmap calls on the agency to communicate better with stakeholders in aviation, mass transit, freight rail, motor carrier and pipeline sectors, and take a hand in protecting data collected on travelers.
The Transportation Security Administration unveiled a cybersecurity roadmap that it says will not only line it up with current administration cybersecurity efforts, but also expand its collaboration with private commercial critical infrastructure partners.
TSA Administrator David Pekoske announced the roadmap that will guide its cybersecurity policy for the next five years in remarks at the American Association of Airport Executives aviation security summit in Arlington, Va. on Dec. 4.
The roadmap, he said, "is a first" for the agency and closely lines up with the overall DHS cybersecurity strategy, with its five supporting "pillars" of managing cybersecurity risk announced last spring.
TSA's roadmap tasks IT officials with conducting tighter risk assessment and mitigations for internal systems and puts an increased emphasis on external engagement. The agency wants stakeholders in the aviation, mass transit, freight rail, motor carrier and pipeline sectors to go beyond sharing threat indicators and look at lessons learned, potential consequences and vulnerability-related details, as well as response and recovery plans after a cyber incident.
Pekoske said DHS newly-renamed DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) will play an integral part in the cybersecurity effort for the transportation systems sector that TSA oversees.
Pekoske said his agency is working with CISA to protect the "vast volumes of data we deal with" and to leverage that data in security risk assessment for the agency as well as the federal government.
The document defines pathways to integrate and improve the agency's cybersecurity posture, protect transportation systems and build up the agency's capacity to meet shifting cybersecurity technology.
The roadmap's priorities include risk identification; vulnerability reduction; consequence mitigation; and enabling cybersecurity outcomes.
The roadmap codifies efforts by TSA's CIO and CISO to work through threat assessments for internal systems and insure an "adquate level of security enterprise-wide and address systemic risks and interdependencies across and between systems." It calls for TSA to provide "tailored capabilities, tools, and services to protect legacy systems, as well as cloud and shared infrastructures."