On July 23, AIS, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), hosted a focused cybersecurity test event for the National Motor Freight Traffic Association® (NMFTA)® at the ORION facility in Rome, NY. The effort examined security risks within modern transportation systems, with particular attention on the legacy Power Line Communications (PLC)‑based communications channel used in tractor‑trailer configurations.
NMFTA Senior Cybersecurity Research Engineer Ben Gardiner leads national initiatives aimed at identifying and mitigating cyber‑attack vectors affecting commercial transportation infrastructure. His recent research uses in‑depth hardware and software reverse engineering to uncover vulnerabilities in PLC‑based tractor and trailer systems. This event was structured to determine whether remote signals could influence critical vehicle systems in motion, expanding on previous research that demonstrated the presence of potential cyber-attack vectors that could impact vehicle component reliability. The findings will be incorporated into upcoming industry briefings and presented this week at Black Hat and DEF CON.
Supported by AFRL and AIS testing resources, Gardiner executed a comprehensive series of evaluations against a tractor‑tanker setup, both stationary and at varying speeds on the ORION test track. Throughout the tests, custom Radio Frequency (RF) messages were transmitted to the vehicle, and system behavior was closely monitored across multiple hardware and software configurations to ensure robust, repeatable results.
The day‑long event at Griffiss International Airport brought together engineers from AIS and AFRL, county airport personnel, and industry guests. The resulting data provides significant insight for NMFTA’s ongoing research and will directly inform future work to secure trailer systems and PLC‑based communications channels across the transportation ecosystem.
