{"id":6564,"date":"2020-09-14T10:29:44","date_gmt":"2020-09-14T10:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anratechnologies.com\/home\/?p=6564"},"modified":"2023-10-02T08:55:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T08:55:32","slug":"trust-and-security-in-the-world-of-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anratechnologies.com\/home\/2020\/09\/14\/trust-and-security-in-the-world-of-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust and Security in the world of Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones, as Internet of Things (IoT) devices, present security challenges and vulnerabilities for unintended data distribution.\u00a0 Safety is critical for the unmanned aircraft industry, similar to the manned aviation industry as both operate within a digital aviation ecosystem. With rapidly scaling operations and increasing integration between manned and unmanned operations in a sensitive airspace, addressing new and emerging cyber threats is of utmost importance in maintaining operational viability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The aviation industry is built upon a trust framework including the: identification of communicating parties and the integrity of the information exchanged among them. Without an onboard pilot to communicate with air traffic services, interoperability has become the foundation of a viable UAS Traffic Management (UTM) framework. This is the same foundation that future systems will be built upon to ensure a trusted stack for increasingly more autonomous systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to information exchange, data collected by drones can be operational mission data in the form of telemetry, as well as acquired data such as photogrammetry, LiDAR, and live video feed etc.\u00a0 This data is secured by enterprise level data sharing controls which require sophisticated infrastructure and advanced security measures to combat the growing number of cyberattacks. \u00a0 In this article, we will discuss data security downstream of the mechanism that controls the drone, often known as the Ground Control Station (GCS).<\/span><\/p>\n

Utilizing a UTM system such as ANRA Technologies<\/span> ANRATM<\/sup><\/strong><\/span><\/a> CTR, ensures\u00a0 in-built internal defenses for protecting data.\u00a0 Our UTM platform, designed with elasticity in mind, minimizes the number of internal and external facing connectivity interfaces.\u00a0 Resilient identification, authentication, authorization, integrity and permissions-based system access are the foundations of a secure UTM platform. We have accepted that our controls and standards applied to this system will have to constantly evolve to meet changing global threats.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ANRA ANRA<\/span>\u00a0CTR platform connects to existing and future air traffic control\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

systems.\u00a0 In addition, the platform can exchange data with other UTM systems and airspace participants with application programming interfaces and authorization services. ANRA is constantly looking to make the platforms more secure, agile, scalable, and transparent when it comes to data security. This is true for all participants within the aviation digital ecosystem, as threats evolve, new controls will be needed to ensure trust framework entities continue to operate within their role.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ANRA ANRA<\/span>\u00a0UTM is hardened to tampering and false data injection, manipulation and repudiation. It also reduces the attack surface and eliminates certain classes of attacks by monitoring access to interfaces based on authorization and authentication mechanisms. The platform\u2019s audit logging capabilities ensure operational transparency both from an internal operational and a regulatory compliance perspective. Hardening the system starts with focusing on creating a secure environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Security Focus Areas<\/h3>\n

We can group the security focus into the following top level areas that warrant review and collaborative solutions with input from the stakeholder community.<\/span><\/p>\n