With aviation’s cybersecurity challenges on the rise, and the growing digitalisation of the industry presenting increasing risks, ensuring operational and data security is indispensable. Here, collaboration and coordination is critical, so we sat down with cybersecurity and technology specialist Lisa Ventura MBE — founder of Cyber Security Unity Limited and a member of BCS, the chartered institute for IT — to dive deeper.
Aviation is critical infrastructure facing global and compound threats, with both large amounts of sensitive data and wider implications for security and safety. Beyond base-level strategies like the segmentation of critical networks, isolation of critical systems, and zero-trust security models, these complex challenges require coordinated, joined up solutions.
“Cybersecurity in all industries as well as aviation is truly borderless, and international collaboration and information sharing among airlines, airports, and aviation authorities play a vital role in enhancing overall aviation cybersecurity,” Ventura tells us. “Although there is some reticence to do this because of perceived competition or sharing confidential data with the wrong organisations, by working together, the aviation industry can more effectively identify, assess, and mitigate cybersecurity risks.”
An example of best practice here is the Aviation Information Sharing and Analysis Center, often referred to as Aviation ISAC, a nonprofit membership organisation comprising “airframers, airlines, airports, satellite manufacturers, aviation services, and their supply chains”, according to the organisation. As a forum, it scans for emerging threats, exchanges information about vulnerabilities, shares intelligence and promulgates best practices, as well as operating a vulnerability disclosure program.
Standards, like the information security standard ISO/IEC 27001, can both help to frame risks and to demonstrate an organisation’s commitment to best practice.
Within regulatory and standards work, Ventura says, “common measures include developing and implementing cybersecurity policies and procedures, conducting cybersecurity risk assessments, implementing cybersecurity controls, such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and data encryption, training employees on cybersecurity best practices and implementing incident response plans.”
Indeed, standards and regulation, including the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Aviation Cybersecurity Strategy and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, are playing an increasing role within aviation. This kind of work creates structures for players of all kinds within the industry to deal with risks in a common and unified way across organisational silo boundaries.
Wider benefits to collaboration include “improved visibility into the global threat landscape, as by sharing information about cyber threats and vulnerabilities, airlines, airports, and aviation authorities can gain a better understanding of the global threat landscape. This information can help them to develop more effective cybersecurity strategies and tactics,” Ventura says. “Also, by working together, airlines, airports, and aviation authorities can become more resilient to cyberattacks. If one organisation is attacked, the others can learn from the experience and implement measures to protect themselves from the same attack. International collaboration can promote innovation in aviation cybersecurity as by sharing ideas and best practices, airlines, airports, and aviation authorities can develop new and more effective ways to protect themselves.”
Collaborative work within the various sectors of aviation can also prove fruitful to combat threats that have specific geopolitical, regional or sectoral elements. The threats facing different organisations within aviation — airports and airlines, for example — may or may not overlap. A given airline operator, as a result, may find substantial benefit in collaborating in different ways with airports inside and outside its route network, while also learning the lessons that other airlines in different parts of the world can offer.
“Overall,” Ventura concludes, “international collaboration and information sharing are essential for enhancing aviation cybersecurity. By working together, airlines, airports, and aviation authorities can make the aviation industry more secure and resilient to cyberattacks.”
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