Hackers breach U.S. air traffic control computers

In 2006, she said the virus on the Internet and distribution of the FAA forced to close some of its air traffic control (ATC) in Alaska.

The audit was conducted by the Assistant Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation and released this week. A copy of this report is drawn from the Web CNET News Agency and published online.

"The need to protect the ATC system from cyber attacks requires attention because of the extensive (FAA) are increasingly addressing the use of commercial software and Internet protocol-based technologies níže mother ATC systems report said.

He said that the use of commercial software and Internet applications can increase efficiency, but "inevitably entails a higher risk of security systems in ATC, as it was developed with proprietary software."

Software deficiencies are particularly worrying at a time when the nation is facing increasing threat of sophisticated nation-sponsored cyber-attacks, "said the report.

"By using these weaknesses to gain unauthorized access to information stored on the Web using computers," she said.

"Moreover, these vulnerabilities could allow attackers to compromise the FAA computer users by injecting malicious code on a computer," she said.

Hackers broke into the U.S. air traffic control computers on several occasions in recent years and greater reliance on web applications and commercial software has made the network vulnerable, according to a government audit.

Among the violations is an attack on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in February 2009, when computer hackers trying to access personal information of 48,000 current and former FAA employees, the report says.

The report said a safety test identified 763 "high-risk vulnerabilities that could allow an attacker with immediate access to a computer system and allows for example to implement the remote commands.

The Wall Street Journal said an FAA spokeswoman, Laura Brown, had rejected some of the conclusions in the report, including the degree of violation in 2006 that led to the partial implementation of the ATC in Alaska.