In the context of the International Transport Forum 2018, which was held on 23-25 May in Leipzig (Germany), UIC co-organized along with ITF and United Nations Economic Council for Europe (UNECE) a half-day workshop on the theme of rail security.
The workshop, held on the first day of the Summit, hosted several speakers from Europe, America and Asia bringing their expertise from diverse areas such as railway companies, international organisations and academia to undertake a fruitful discussion on the most relevant rail security issues.
Security industry actors were also involved in the workshop, according to the intention of UIC to establish (respecting the essential principles of neutral and fair competition) connections and what is being offered on the market by solution providers with the specific expectations and requirements carried by railway companies.
In the context of the railway sector, security represents not only a binding obligation or a legal requirement: it constitutes a fundamental aspect of quality of service, fostering and supporting all the main domains and activities. According to that, all the key areas of interest such as infrastructure security, passenger interface and freight security were covered by dedicated panels within the workshop.
Highly pressing issues such as cybersecurity were addressed by the panellists, and on the UIC side Bruno De Rosa presented the EU-funded CYRAIL (“CYbersecurity in the RAILway sector”) Project. UIC, representing relevant stakeholders in the railway sector, is part of the project consortium along with five primary actors bringing highly valuable insight and expertise from different fields: EVOLEO Technologies (Project Coordinator), fortiss GmbH, Fundación Euskoiker, Atsec Information Security and Airbus Defense and Space.
CYRAIL Project, which started in October 2016 and is currently ongoing (Project Final Conference will be held at UIC Headquarters in Paris on 18 September 2018), tackles serious challenges in today’s security sector and aims at achieving highly valuable goals for the railway sector. Among them, performing a cybersecurity assessment of the railway system(s) and an evaluation of current threats (while also foreseeing the possible future ones) in order to better shape, assess and select the most innovative and performing solutions tailored upon the specificities of the railway sector and fostering a security-by-design approach among rail operators and industry.
The workshop concluded with a final session focused on the future challenges posed to rail security: on top of them, keeping up with the growing speed of technological development which constantly creates new opportunities, while also opening spaces for new threats and rising the vital need to address them promptly and in the most effective way.
