“We can look at
history and see what those threats are capable of doing. They penetrate
enterprises on a daily basis. You can read the news on this and every single
day there’s another attack. Attacks against the aviation industry are also
occurring on a daily basis and we can expect that as the connected aircraft
grows in popularity there will be more and more and more attacks there too,” – Bob
Gourley, Moderator of the Global Connected Aircraft Summit[i]
Topic:
As avionics and ATC
continue to become progressively more complex, managing the cyber security of
both airports and individual airplanes has become much more difficult to control.
These cyber threats are frequently discussed during the GCAS. While many new
technologies are being discussed throughout the summit, it is important to also
talk about the potential new threats that may be present because of these new
technologies. One of the problems with the current cybersecurity that has
recently been highlighted is the fact that different companies handle the cybersecurity
in different segments of the aviation and they don’t necessarily interact well
together. One example of an airplane being hacked was when “ethical hacker”
Chris Roberts used his IFC access to hack into the part of the plane that
controls the airplane’s ability to climb.[ii]
Fortunately, he only hacked the system to highlight the problems and didn’t harm
any of the passengers in any way.
Important Terminology:
· Air Traffic Control (ATC) – “a government service that facilitates the
safe and orderly movement of aircraft within and between airports by receiving
and processing data from radar and devices that monitor local weather
conditions and by maintaining radio contact with pilots”[iii]
· Global Connected Aircraft Summit (GCAS) – “provides airlines, operators, integrators,
and technology vendors complete connected solutions – from ground to air and
from nose to tail. The fourth annual event connects business, technology,
and industry perspectives and goes beyond just in-flight entertainment, to
include operations, communications and technologies that impacts the aircraft.”[iv]
· In-Fight Connectivity (IFC) – services offered by airlines that allow
passengers to use features such as wireless internet, movie streaming, etc.
Relation to Computer Science:
The topic of
aviation cyber security relates to computer science because of its direct
relation to programming. As I mentioned in my entry last week regarding cyber
threats to casinos, the programs being written by hackers and other individuals
are the major reason that these threats exist. Another way in which this
relates to computer science is that the complexity involved in protecting
against these threats highlights the speed at which the technology in these
industries evolves. Several cyber defense experts highlight this fact by saying
that as soon as a new defense technology is released, it is often already
outdated because of how quickly changes occur in both hardware and software.
Works Cited:
[i] "Experts
Speak to Cyber Security in Aviation." Experts Speak to Cyber
Security in Aviation - GCA Summit 2017. Access Intelligence, LLC, n.d. Web.
8 Feb. 2017.
[ii] "Experts
Speak to Cyber Security in Aviation." Experts Speak to Cyber
Security in Aviation - GCA Summit 2017. Access Intelligence, LLC, n.d. Web.
8 Feb. 2017.
[iii] "Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.
[iv] "JOIN
US! Arlington, VA June 7-9." GCA Summit 2017 - GCA Summit 2017.
Access Intelligence, LLC, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2017.
It is really important to defend from cyber attacks, especially in places like airports where lives could be at risk. Do you think that defense technology will ever be able to keep up with the rapidly changing hardware and software?
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