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EASA NPA on aircraft cybersecurity

This just popped up on email. The EASA website is a mess so I have put a local copy of the PDF here.

This is obviously airliner oriented but with so many IT people in GA, it might be fun to read.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Taking into account security (as opposed to safety) in aircraft design will IMO have huge consequences.

  • Safety: protection against accidental failure
  • Security: protection against intentional attack by an intelligent attacker

The big issue is that redundancy by identical systems is a standard safety protection. Not perfect, but works. E.g. having two identical GNSS units, two identical radios, etc. If one breaks down, the other one still has a good chance of working.

But redundancy by identical systems is worthless for security protection. If the attacker can disrupt one, it can disrupt the second identical (or similar design) one. E.g. on an ILS, someone in a van sending a jamming signal on the ILS frequency, or a stronger signal giving false information.

ELLX
2 Posts
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