Israeli cybersecurity startup Cylus has raised a $4.7 million seed round to develop its platform for providing cybersecurity services to railway and metro systems.

The funding came from Magma Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures, SBI Group and Zohar Zisapel. Founded in 2017 by veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces Intelligence Corps’ elite technological intelligence and security units, Cylus is developing a platform that will allow both public and private owners of railway and metro systems to protect their infrastructure from cyberthreats.

Railways may not immediately come to mind with regard to cyberattacks, but particularly as they bring their technology into the 21st century, many use wireless and information technology structures that can be hacked, putting those systems at risk. That risk is real and can cover a range of potential threats, as already seen in the shipping industry where attacks such as ransomware and GPS spoofing have already taken place.

“As railways adopt more automated, wireless and connected technologies, their most safety-critical assets have become exposed to new and more dangerous types of cyberattacks,” the company said in a statement. “These attacks can threaten passenger safety, disrupt service and cause severe economic damage. Legacy components and communication protocols throughout the railway industry were never designed with cybersecurity in mind and are in critical need of the kind of network protection Cylus provides.”

The Cylus platform is said to be tailored specifically to the industry’s unique requirements, including the ability to detect cyberattacks in their operational network, including their signaling systems and rolling stock, as well as the ability to block attackers before they can cause any damage.

Hackers have targeted railway systems before. In 2016, the San Francisco Municipal Railway was held hostage by hackers in a ransomware attack. A security company found that railways in the United Kingdom had been targeted by hackers four times the same year. Research from SCADA Strangelove in 2015 found that railway systems were highly vulnerable to hacking, despite much of the technology used being “so old it should be futureproof.”

“Train attacks are no longer science fiction,” Cylus co-founder Zohar Zisapel said. “Trains, passengers and critical railway infrastructure are undoubtedly high-quality targets for hackers.”

The takeaway is that anything connected to the internet is vulnerable to hacking and that includes railway networks.

Photo: U.S. Air Force/public domain