AeroBD | The AERO news Company…Inverness, SCOTLAND, 10 March, 2016 : The aerospace industry was left contemplating the devastating impact of cyber-attacks after hackers stole €50m ($55m) from parts manufacturer FACC via wire fraud last month. It increasingly seems to be a question of when, rather than if, an organization will fall victim, with PwC’s Global State of Security Survey 2016 stating that there were 38% more cyber security incidents detected in 2015 than in 2014. 2016 is already off to a bad start…

Whilst the value of the fraud – and its knock-on effect – is worrying enough (after FACC announced the theft, its share price dropped by 19%), this incident should cause companies to consider not only how secure their financial systems are, but also what exposure they have to cyber terrorists who may be after potentially more valuable assets – their confidential information.

For an aerospace company (at whatever layer of the supply chain) its relationships are key and a loss of (or tampering with) confidential information (whether its own or that of a supplier or customer) may significantly damage confidence and affect commercial relationships. Aircraft and engine condition monitoring systems transfer substantial volumes of data from aircraft to operator, and between operator, manufacturer and maintenance provider.