select search filters
briefings
roundups & rapid reactions
Fiona fox's blog
Scientists comment on reports of an IT outage at Edinburgh Airport.
Rimesh Patel, a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and cyber security consultant, said:
”The UK economy relies heavily on transport infrastructure, whether it’s for tourism or transfer of goods and services. These are well established services, just like other national utility providers (Water, Electricity or Gas) with rigorous policies and service architectures in place. When local IT issues arise that causes severe disruption, technology leads should look to review their governance, risk and compliance processes to ensure a proactive management approach is in place to pre-empt any disruptions.”
Dr Junade AIi, Software Engineer, Cyber expert and Fellow at the Institution of Engineering and Technology said:
“At this point, there is no indication this is as a result of malicious activity. At present this seems to be a localised issue to Edinburgh Airport and air traffic appears to be resuming now but some knock-on disruption may remain. Air traffic control systems are often designed to prioritise safety over keeping air space open, as the public risk appetite for air travel demands high safety requirements, therefore these IT issues can often cause disruption. This highlights the ever-present need for resilience in our critical national infrastructure.”
Declared interests
Dr Junade AIi: No conflicts of interest.
For all other experts, no reply for our request for DOIs was received.