When you think of airport security, you probably think of screening lines, security checkpoints and lots of surveillance cameras. But what about cybersecurity?
Today, cloud security company Coronet released Attention All Passengers: Airport Networks Are Putting Your Devices & Cloud Apps at Severe Risk, a first-of-its-kind data report identifying San Diego International Airport, John Wayne Airport-Orange County (CA) International Airport and Houston’s William P. Hobby International Airport as America’s most cyber insecure airports.
According to Coronet, the purpose of the report is to inform business travelers of how insecure airport Wi-Fi can inadvertently put the integrity and confidentiality of their essential cloud-based work apps (G-Suite, Dropbox, Office 365, etc.) at risk, and to educate all other flyers on the dangers of connecting to unencrypted, unsecured or improperly configured networks. Currently, Chicago-Midway, Raleigh-Durham and Nashville International lead the pack as the least vulnerable. The complete report, which ranks the 45 busiest airports in the U.S., is available here.
America’s Most Cyber Insecure Airports
36. Boston Logan International Airport
37. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
38. Charlotte Douglas International Airport
39. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
40. Dallas Love Field
41. Newark Liberty International Airport
42. Southwest Florida International Airport
43.William P. Houston Hobby Airport
44. John Wayne Airport-Orange County Airport
45. San Diego International Airport
America’s Least Vulnerable Airports
10. Tampa International Airport
9. Miami International Airport
8. Lambert St. Louis International Airport
7. Kansas City International Airport
6. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
5. San Antonio International Airport
4. Washington Dulles International Airport
3. Nashville International Airport
2. Raleigh Durham International Airport
1. Chicago-Midway International Airport
The Methodology Behind Finding America’s Most Cyber Insecure Airports
To identify the airports with the greatest cyber risk, Coronet collected data from more than 250,000 consumer and corporate endpoints that traveled through America’s 45 busiest airports over the course of five months. Coronet then analyzed the data consisting of both device vulnerabilities and Wi-Fi network risks, which was captured from the company’s threat protection applications. Following the completed analysis, the data was combined and standardized to compile an Airport Threat Score. The greater the vulnerability for devices and networks, the higher the score assigned. Based on the analysis, Coronet classifies any score above 6.5 as unacceptable exposure.
“Far too many U.S. airports have sacrificed the security of their Wi-Fi networks for consumer convenience,” says Dror Liwer, Coronet’s founder and CISO. “As a result, business travelers in particular put not just their devices, but their company’s entire digital infrastructure at risk every time they connect to Wi-Fi that is unencrypted, unsecured or improperly configured. Until such time when airports take responsibility and improve their cybersecurity posture, the accountability is on each individual flyer to be aware of the risks and take the appropriate steps to minimize the danger.”
