Contact: Donna Aggazio
(202) 496-4884
daggazio@apta.com

January 23, 2003—The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has been designated as the sector coordinator by the U.S. Department of Transportation in the creation of an Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to further promote security for the public transportation industry.

As the designated sector coordinator, APTA will serve as primary contact to organize and bring the public transportation community together to work cooperatively on physical and cyber security issues. Throughout the implementation of the ISAC, APTA will work directly with U.S. DOT to further define the transit sector’s participation.

Specifically, the public transportation ISAC will collect, analyze and distribute critical security and threat information from government and other sources. Best security practices and plans to eliminate threats, attacks, vulnerabilities and countermeasures are drawn upon to protect the sector’s cyber and physical infrastructures. The ISAC is full service, responding to indications and warnings on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week.

"The safety and security of our customers, employees and the general public is of the highest importance to the public transportation industry," said APTA President William W. Millar. "Our industry has long established programs and procedures to strengthen the security of our services. By partnering with the U.S. Department of Transportation, we can more effectively pursue strategies so that the integrity of those systems is not compromised. We are grateful to U.S. DOT and Secretary Mineta for his strong leadership on this issue."

APTA will retain a private sector contractor to establish and operate the ISAC. Initially, 20 public transportation systems will participate in the pilot project. Once the ISAC is fully established, all sizes of participating transit systems will be able to access analyzed security information.

APTA is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 member organizations including public transportation systems; planning, design, construction and finance firms; product and service providers; academic institutions; and state associations and departments of transportation. APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe, efficient and economical public transportation services and products. APTA members serve more than 90 percent of persons using public transportation in the United States and Canada.

SOURCE: www.apta.com

<< Back to News