Positive Train Control (PTC) Expands Cyber Attack Surface for Rail Systems

This Dragos report warns that North American freight rail Positive Train Control (PTC) depends heavily on Meteorcomm 220MHz software-defined radios supplied to multiple Class 1 railroads; a design vulnerability or compromise (enabling MITM or DDoS) could disrupt locomotive, wayside, and back-office communications, causing widespread rail delays, collisions, derailments, and cascading impacts across energy, manufacturing, and supply chains, and recommends hardening connected devices and proactive network monitoring.