Introduction to Aviation Cyber Security

Presented By Krishna Sampigethaya

Abstract

The cyber threat landscape of aviation is every increasing. Particularly concerning are those threats that bring novel risks that are specific to aviation and are perceived to impact public safety and well-being. This tutorial will introduce you to aviation cyber security, focusing on the aircraft being the center of an increasingly complex, technology-driven aviation ecosystem. Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be able to comprehensively summarize and skillfully analyze today’s aviation cyber security landscape including both manned and unmanned aircraft. You will be able to differentiate real vs. perceived as well as emerging vs. future threats. You will be able to recall aviation and cyber security terminology, explain cyber security essentials, and illustrate how cyber security applies to the passenger carrying aircraft, unmanned aircraft, and their supporting systems. Using examples and case studies, you will be able to evaluate threats from vulnerabilities as well as risks from threats to these systems. You will be able to recognize, examine, and compare some of the state-of-the-art and recent advances in aviation cyber security, including those related to avionics, crew, and aircraft, air traffic control, UAS, and UTM systems.

Presenter(s)

Krishna Sampigethaya is currently the Chair for the Department of Cyber Intelligence and Security at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ, located in the one and only College of Security and Intelligence in the US. https://prescott.erau.edu/cyber. Krishna received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Washington (2007) and was one of the first in the world to defend a thesis on connected vehicle privacy and aviation cyber security research. He then joined The Boeing Company and was soon selected as the first Boeing Associate Technical Fellow for aviation cyber-physical security in 2012. Most recently he was an Associate Director for cyber security at the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) Research Center (2016-2018), focusing on the security of aerospace systems and commercial products. He has also been an Assistant Director for the Masters in Telecom program at the University of Maryland (2014-2015), developing new courses on software-defined networks and connected vehicles. Krishna founded the first aviation cyber security technical committee, sponsored by the SAE in 2008, and has been organizing aviation cyber security tracks at SAE as well as AIAA/IEEE conferences since then. He co-edited the first special issue on cyber-physical systems, published in the first centennial year issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE journal (2012). He has authored over 50 papers—including 3 award-winning publications (at IEEE DASC and I-CNS)—delivered over 16 keynotes, and holds over 16 US patents in aviation cyber security. His work has been recognized in the community with awards such as the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) Engineer of the Year Award (2013), ASEI Corporate Engineering Excellence Award (2013), and a Best Instructor Award at UMD (2015). Most recently, he led a team of Embry-Riddle cybersecurity program students to design the first ever aviation cybersecurity competition at the DEF CON Aerospace Village in 2020.