Behind the Badge: Addressing Insider Threats in the Aviation Industry
For the majority of airline passengers and pilots, there is a lot of trust put on the aircraft maintainers but sometimes they can pose a significant threat. Insider threats in the aviation industry can occur in various forms, including sabotage, theft of sensitive information, and intentional damage to aircrafts. These insiders can be pilots, mechanics, baggage handlers, flight attendants, ground crew, etc. but is mostly caused by employees with access to secure areas and sensitive data who misuse their positions (BaMaung, D.). An example of this is in 2019 there was a case where a disgruntled American Airlines mechanic purposefully interfered with an aircraft's Air Data Module (ADM) causing the plane to abort takeoff (Jones, D.). “Surveillance footage showed Alani deliberately obstructing the Air Data Module using a dark, Styrofoam-like material—highlighting the malicious intent behind the sabotage (Jones, 2019).” T SA plays ...