Freight Rail and Its Cyber Future

⚡ Weekend Threat Brief

The Backbone of American Commerce – Freight Rail and Its Cyber Future

The importance of freight rail to the U.S. economy and its role as a backbone of national infrastructure cannot be overstated. Freight rail accounts for nearly 40 percent of the country’s long-distance freight volume in ton-miles—more than any other mode of transportation. According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the network spans about 140,000 miles and hauls around 1.5 billion tons of raw materials and finished goods each year. The AAR’s data underscores freight rail’s role as an economic engine, generating about $233.4 billion in total economic output in 2023 and reinvesting $26.8 billion to modernize infrastructure, improve safety, and enhance reliability. 

Technology now underpins nearly every aspect of this complex network. The rail industry has adopted innovations that improve safety, logistics, and operational efficiency. Systems track and share information about car positions, load types, maintenance status, and telemetry to ensure coordinated, reliable operations. Emerging concepts even include self-driving rail cars that could assemble themselves into trains as needed—an idea once considered science fiction.

However, as the rail sector undergoes digital transformation, it inherits the cybersecurity challenges of a hyperconnected world. Modern signaling and control systems depend on interconnected digital networks, SCADA platforms, and industrial control systems designed to last decades. These technologies improve reliability and safety but also expand the attack surface.

🎯 Tactical Playbook

Why TikTok remains active in the United States despite mounting cybersecurity concerns

Cybersecurity analyst Rex Lee told NTD News that TikTok’s continued presence in the US highlights the tension between data-privacy risk and political considerations. Lee explained that the platform still collects device identifiers, contact lists, and keystroke data, which can be shared with foreign entities. Despite bipartisan calls for stricter regulation, the app operates under limited restrictions, largely due to ongoing court challenges and concerns about user backlash.

🛡️ Research Watch

Report finds US cybersecurity posture weakening across sectors

A new report highlighted by SC World indicates a measurable decline in the United States’ overall cybersecurity resilience. Key areas of weakness include outdated critical-infrastructure protections, inconsistent cyber-insurance coverage, and a shortage of skilled professionals. The study also notes that smaller state and local agencies continue to lag in threat detection and response maturity. The broader message is that while federal spending on cybersecurity has grown, coordination between public and private sectors remains uneven. For CISOs and policymakers, the report serves as a call to strengthen baseline controls, invest in workforce training, and align national frameworks with practical implementation.

🗣️ Community Signal

So if you're making any change, or you're deploying a new solution, there has to be some sort of project management around that includes some sign-up from certain parts of the business. And of course, security compliance, and other control functions need to have a say in bringing all that together. And also when we're going to the cloud, that experience enabled us to engage the cloud provider extensively to ensure that we also have those controls that the very people might feel it's not applicable in that environment. But we're able to build that into the engagements we had with them. Adeoluwa Akomolafe, the Chief Information Security Officer of Wema bank.

🗳️ Your Take - The Results

AI acting maliciously and AI becoming a new attack surface have garnered the maximum votes, with the former edging the latter by just one extra vote!.

Until Monday’s edition - Let’s keep that zero-day count at zero!