Safeguarding the Future of Public Transportation

In many ways, public transportation embodies both the past and the future of transportation as a whole. From the inception of the omnibus in France and London, which carried 10 people in horse-drawn carriages, to the complex inner and inter-city systems of most major urban areas today, public transit has offered efficiency and cost-savings, enabling people heading in the same direction or to the same destination to diffuse the costs of travel.

Now, as cities become increasingly crowded and we begin to understand the role that the transportation industry plays in climate change, public transportation again comes to the forefront, offering an effective and straightforward tool for reducing congestion and emissions. Service providers are striving daily to improve safety, provide better service to passengers, comply with emerging emissions regulations, and cope with driver . To meet these challenges, public transportation systems around the world are embracing innovation, and implementing digitalization, electrification, autonomy, and connectivity strategies to take them into the next era. But while these strategies are crucial for supporting the long-term relevance of these services, they also increase exponentially the amount of data associated with each vehicle, and introduce new, more significant security vulnerabilities.

The Value and Vulnerabilities of Data

Transit fleets face a new and unprecedented situation as they navigate the process of modernization: the vast amount of data that connected fleets generate is hugely valuable to the fleets themselves, and to cyber criminals.

Data can be transformational for operators if harnessed and properly processed. By utilizing all data – including in-vehicle data – fleet managers can better support vehicle availability, improve service continuity, and more.

However, in the eyes of bad actors, the potential payoff of a successful cyberattack against public transportation systems is massive. From multiple drivers sharing vehicles across shifts to internet-based fare transactions and more, digitalization offers bad actors numerous entry-point possibilities. Without proper security measures implemented, digitalization turns public transportation into a major vulnerability.

Keeping Data in the Right Hands

Enigmatos offers a dedicated solution that addresses both sides of this equation. The EnigmaOne Engine safeguards transit passengers and upgrades services with cybersecurity and data utilization that fleets can count on. We detect all attempted attacks on a vehicle’s communication network, regardless of attack vectors, and enhance passenger safety with real-time visibility of the vehicle’s critical systems. Further, remote diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and improved telematics enable reduced costs and minimized downtime. Finally, our regulation compliance and reporting support assure that public transit fleets remain in compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements.

Dan Company for Public Transportation Ltd., a major transit service provider in the most densely populated region of Israel, understands how critical this comprehensive approach to fleet data really is. “Public transportation is undergoing tremendous change due to the impact of increased digitization, connectivity, and electrification, which introduces increased risk of cyber-attacks,” explained Ori Goldstein, VP of Business Development at Dan. “We chose Enigmatos to protect our fleets due to its superior performance and holistic approach to cybersecurity and data utilization.”

Public transportation has the potential to help cities surmount the many fundamental changes that await down the road, if the operators plan and implement the right smart and innovative modernization strategies. With Enigmatos, transit fleets get the access and visibility they need into the data they create, to achieve the safety and efficiency they can’t afford to do without.