David Hahn / WSO-CSS
Sr. Program Specialist – Safety & Security
American Public Transportation Association
David Hahn joined the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) shortly after graduation from college. After high school he started doing loss prevention work, started developing investigative skills and from there it developed in an all-hazards approach to safety and security when an intern with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Following that he was a safety logistics manager for a trucking company and then saw the opening for APTA, which he knew would be an ideal fit.
In his current position, he manages the Public Transportation Information Sharing and Analysis Center (PT-ISAC) program, which is a vital intelligence resource to recipients who receive the “TRIAD,” a cyber daily notification system and other intelligence products provided to more than 2,400 industry members. This initiative was fostered out of a government intelligence information streamlining effort, of which Hahn is the primary private sector leader and educator in the Public Transit — Information Sharing Working Group. Due to the efficiency of his management of the PT-ISAC and value received, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has doubled the grant funding from $600,000 to $1.5million and asked Hahn to also implement the new Over-The-Road-Bus ISAC and has continued funding the APTA Security Standards program.
Hahn also manages the entire APTA Security Standards program and all the contractual, budgetary, program management, apta.com website development and educational outreach activities associated with the overall program. Additionally, he is managing the Infrastructure Security, the Enterprise Cyber Security and Control & Communication Security Working Groups. He is APTA’s lead person on the rush to develop cyber security in the industry. In the 2014 Transit CEOs Seminar, he made a presentation on cybersecurity — “What Every CEO Should Know to Help Secure the System,” followed by a technical presentation at the 2014 Mass Transit/ Rail Security and Emergency Management Roundtable on cybersecurity, “Watching the Back Door.”
Hahn continues to advance the interests of the industry and enhance the security of member agencies through the ongoing coordination with TSA, Federal Transit Administration (FTA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and association partners, such as the Association of American Railroads (AAR), American Bar Association (ABA) and the Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) though his active involvement in the planning and coordination of the 2015 Mass Transit/Rail Security and Emergency Management Roundtable and many other conferences and working group meetings throughout the year.
Hahn is also actively planning, leading and independently facilitating several safety, security and operationally focused peer reviews for transit agencies. He has achieved several industry certifications from the National Transit Institute (NTI) and Transportation Safety Institute (TSI), among others, including certification as a lead auditor to supplement his activity on leading safety assessments and security audits. These skills make him a valued member of the TSA’s BASE Assessment for Security Enhancement (BASE) advisory panel.
“Public transit is one of those industries that it’s a lot of measuring, a lot of sharing of best practices. It’s one of the critical sectors within our economy."
“What you have to understand is that information sharing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You have to be able to quickly, effectively communicate the issues that are happening within your agency or within the government, both back and forth. Before September 11, 2001, there wasn’t an efficient information-sharing system in place. There was an informal network where people would call each other, more on a regional basis. A lot of the other agencies in the middle of the country weren’t as involved or didn’t have the advanced intelligence established networks. After September 11, that really changed … There was a big push to consolidate all the information and to streamline it."
“Our industry is different from most other industries in that we are truly public. If you look at other critical sectors, they focus more on selling or sharing information with only a few of their trusted colleagues. A transit agency on the West coast, they can contact New York, WMATA, APTA, in order to get a general template or their plan to share the general information. Public transit, being a quasi-government-associated industry, we do share our information and are not as competitive … In the next 10 years I think public transit will be the lead sector in the transportation sector as far as advancing cybersecurity."
“A concrete commitment from Congress and our government leaders to invest in our infrastructure for the long term would not only benefit public transportation, but our nation as a whole, as we move toward an increase in ridership year after year and an increase in overall population … transit really needs to be on the forefront of moving our populations. Public transportation is already deeply entrenched in many of our communities. We can’t continue to fund many of our agencies with piecemeal authorization bills that have unfortunately come out of Congress."
