Assignment Topic

Explain some modern Technologies to Counter Aviation Security Threats

Program: BSAM Semester: 7

Course: Aviation Security Section: B

Assignment No: 03 Assigning Date: 24/12/2022

Due Date: 27/12/2022 Submission Date: 25/12/2022

Group Name: AS

Group Leader Name: Ali Hassanain SAP-ID: 70077846

Mohsin Sajjad 70077850
Aun Zaidi 70078148
Zaid Zahid 70078103
Uzair Tahir 70077482

Remarks:
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____________________ Marks: / 10
Instructor’s Signature

Explain some modern Technologies to Counter Aviation Security

Threats:
Threats to Aviation Security:

1. Technology is rapidly democratizing the ability to inflict large-scale damage. Attacks that
would once have been within the purview of only a few major states are becoming conceivable for
a much wider range of non-state actors and individuals.

2. The merging of cyber and physical creates new vulnerabilities. The democratized capacity
to wreak large-scale havoc is closely related to the merging of the virtual world with the physical:
increasingly, remote attacks can cause serious real-world disruptions. Many systems in civilian
aviation are potentially hackable: reservation systems, flight traffic management systems, access
control management systems, departure control systems, passport control systems, cloud-based
airline data storage, hazardous materials transportation management, cargo handling and shipping.
And that’s before we get to computers on aircraft – flight control systems, GPS-based navigation
systems, fuel gauges and fuel consumption systems, maintenance computers, and so on. The
potential points of cyber vulnerability in aviation are many and growing.

3. As computers do more, human skills erode. Alongside militaries and self-driving car
makers as brought into focus by the recent death of a Tesla driver using “Autopilot” mode – the
aviation industry is grappling with the “paradox of automation”. Automated systems are becoming
able to handle more and more situations, meaning that humans need to step in only when something
unusual and unexpected occurs. But when humans have less opportunity to practice and hone their
skills, they become less and less capable of reacting quickly and appropriately in crisis conditions.
Increasingly researchers are realizing that the most vulnerable points in many systems are those at
which humans interact with automated procedures.

4. Aviation remains a high-value target. Whether between nation states or also involving non-
state actors, modern conflicts are increasingly not confined to conventional battlefields – they tend
to spill over into civilian domains.

As civilian aviation is so critical to the smooth functioning of economies and as aviation related
incidents have such an impact on the media, especially with new technologies enabling the rapid
spread of information and misinformation – it is likely to remain an enticing target for attackers
who want to cause maximum disruption.

Some recommendations for Aviation Security:

1. Too much compliance can be a bad thing. There is still a tendency to focus safety efforts
on compliance with existing regulations. However, as regulations tend to take time to reflect
awareness of new vulnerabilities, this can lead to evolving threats being overlooked, impairing
preparedness.

2. Companies should think like attackers, not defenders. The best way to prepare for
tomorrow’s attacks, rather than merely prevent a repeat of yesterday’s, is to think like an attacker.
In the cyber domain, much of the industry could still do much more to work with “white hackers”,
who can help them identify and re-frame their understanding of vulnerabilities.
In the physical space, too much still hinges on experiences and not enough on scenarios. Often the
response to one attack is to change security procedures in a way that merely shifts the vulnerability.

Adding another security checkpoint doesn’t help if it creates queues before the checkpoint which
are vulnerable to an Istanbul nor Brussels type attack. This is not a new observation. A 2003 study
by RAND on” Designing Airports for Security” found that reducing baggage drop waits from 15
minutes to one minute could halve casualties in a bomb attack. But much more attention is still
typically paid to tightening security checks than reducing the crowding that can happen before
them.

3. Cooperation on security concerns, in the physical and cyber domain, makes everyone
stronger. Individual companies need to avoid seeing their own resilience against attacks as a source
of comparative advantage: that creates the potential for individuals with malicious intent to shop
around for the weakest link, and any successful attack undermines the sector as a whole. While
aviation players are typically aware of the need to share their discoveries on previously unknown
vulnerabilities and best practices for dealing with them, especially in the cyber domain, there is
nonetheless a need for better mechanisms to facilitate this collaboration.

4. We need to rethink border security for the digital age. Although attacks can increasingly
be mounted remotely, aviation safety is still improved by better knowledge about passengers and
the current approach to cross-border movement is decidedly 20th century.

Much more could be done to manage risks while also creating a more seamless travel experience
through facilitating what some have coined a “global trusted traveler programmed” to expedite
secure cross-border movements, establishing standards on the sharing and use of data, traveler
analytics and border controls – for example, ensuring speedy and universal flagging of travel
documents reported as lost or stolen. This could also be an important part of the process of
addressing the challenges above.

The travel industry overall, and the aviation industry in particular, is at a crossroad. With security
concerns intensifying, the security of flying increasingly depends on cross-industry and
multistakeholder dialogues and collaboration to tackle new and shared vulnerabilities.
Thank you