Emerging Trends in Aviation Cyber-Security: Study of European Air Traffic Control (Euro-Control)

Abstract

Civil Aviation is a critical infrastructure. The cyber-attacks on Civil Aviation infrastructure leads to significant impact not only on the safety and security of the airports, airlines and air traffic control units but also on the passengers and staff working at these airports, airlines and air traffic control units. Cyber Security threats in the aviation sector have tremendously increased owing to extensive use of information technology and paucity of appropriate cyber-defence mechanisms and framework. The increase in cyber-attacks in civil aviation are predominantly due to increased use of information technology, higher susceptibility of data, advanced methods and tools of attack, instant and high exposure coupled with increased motivation of attackers. In the following parts, an overview has been given on these very aspects, with a particular focus on recent trends that are present in the aviation industry with special reference to air traffic control. The measures undertaken by Euro Control have also been evaluated. European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulates the cyberspace certifications and licensing to keep a check on the technicians and mechanics in aeronautical department. EASA undertakes standardized inspections for monitoring applicability of EU legislations in a uniform manner. EUROCONTROL has been nominated as the Network Manager for Europe and acts as the central unit for managing air traffic flow. To gain an understanding on the possible threats, the various instances where malware or other attacks have rendered losses or caused problems for the aviation industry have also been discussed.