CPDLC Coming of Age

by Aimee Turner | Apr 22, 2022 | Connectivity

Controllers are increasingly able to deliver instructions with a click of a mouse, without the need to use voice frequencies, an advance that is paving the way for an aircraft’s flight management system to receive the complex digital instructions necessary to make trajectory-based operations a reality.

Europe’s data link mandate was first fielded back in 2009, with an applicability date of 2013. But equipage rates both on ground and in the air did not develop as expected, hampered by serious technical issues that severely reduced the availability of data link for ATC use, initially delaying the mandate by five years.

Those initial CPDLC failures led the European Union in 2016 to appoint the SESAR deployment manager to resolve the issues and relaunch the program. It has since managed to help turn around the situation, reporting significant progress in efforts to boost the airline and ground equipage baseline necessary to allow the future vision of a system-wide digital exchange of information between aircraft and ground. Today, it reports that 80% of eligible aircraft are now equipped with the requisite CPDLC avionics, twice as many as in 2018.

One of the technical challenges that continues to weigh on the industry has been the ICAO ATN protocol creating too much overhead for the capacity of the VHF Digital Link Mode 2 (VDL-M2) system, which is used to support data link between aircraft and ground stations. The technology supports Airline Operational Control (AOC) as well as Air Traffic Services (ATS), and the industry believes that it is not a question of if, but when this will become congested and therefore potentially performance-limited, when air traffic volume picks up pace again.

Complex infrastructure issues still need to be resolved if European Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) are ever to fulfill their potential.

Complementary technologies, including the terrestrial LDACS (L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System) are being developed, which support data link but are also expected to evolve to support navigation functions and voice communication in the future. Iris satcom is already being tested as a data link-compliant satellite system.

The LDACS system is a valid candidate for the ATC community to use as a replacement for VDL, but it will take several more years for the SESAR Joint Undertaking to prove it capable of replacing VDL and for avionics vendors to develop certified LDACS radios. LDACS is certainly not as advanced as the Inmarsat Iris system, which is already being flight tested and will likely be the first alternative to VDL to be used operationally for CPDLC. (See Inmarsat Flight Trials page 30.)

ATM industry body CANSO supports the view that each of these technologies, LDACS and satellite communications systems, offers some unique benefits and technical capabilities which complement each other. Satellite systems are especially well-suited for large coverage areas with less dense air traffic, like oceanic remote and upper continental airspace regions, while LDACS is well-suited for dense air traffic areas, such as lower-level continental areas or hot spots around airports and terminal airspace. Together, they are expected to constitute the pillars of a data link multilink concept, although CANSO says this approach of integrating complementary technologies risks failing due to no organization actually “owning” the project.

CANSO therefore believes that the establishment of a common European Datalink Service Provider could prove critical in harmonizing data link provision and governance in Europe. A future DSP is, it insists, the prerequisite to ensure that the required service performance will be systematically met, while at the same time allowing for multiple commercial actors in data link service provision to be seamlessly integrated and charged. Indeed, one additional benefit of the DSP is how it will change the way that DLS is charged across Europe, with a User Pays Principle to be adopted, where each air navigation service provider pays for the service in accordance with its usage, rather than the more arbitrary and fragmented set of rates which is currently employed

Moves are underway to establish such a common provider entity, initially through an initiative known as the ATS Common Datalink Services governance for Europe or ACDLS, with a funded project called CoDE to develop parts of this. Launched in October 2021 by the A6 Alliance — a consortium of ANSPs driving ATM modernization — and Eurocontrol, with the support of the SESAR Deployment Manager, the ACDLS aims to pave the way and accelerate as much as possible the establishment of a Common European Data Link governance within the SES Digital Backbone framework. The agreed schedule foresees the selection of the future DSP by the third quarter of 2022, its establishment in early 2023, and an operational start date of 2025 — earlier if possible.

Establishment of a common European Datalink Service Provider could prove critical in harmonizing data link provision and governance in Europe, according to CANSO.

This European plan seems to mirror the U.S. FAA’s $331 million ATC data link service contract with Harris Corp. in 2012, which required Harris to subcontract with SITA and Collins to use their VHF networks. What is being envisaged is that the European ANSPs will contract with this future single DSP to secure the service they need for CPDLC, and that this single DSP will also contract with SITA and Collins to use the VHF networks they use to provide the airline data link service, as well as all other networks and technologies.

An industry insider told Aerospace Tech Review that the FAA’s expected model was preserved in the Harris subcontract with Collins/ARINC, who retained ownership of their stations, but that the Harris SITA model was different. The Harris-SITA contract provided Harris with SITA’s U.S. VHF ground stations — which used Harris computers — and an ACARS service processor, giving Harris a VHF ACARS network to provide the FAA service. The deal allowed SITA to use the Harris-owned network to provide the service it sold to airlines.

SITA had already done the same in Europe, selling VHF ground stations to many of the ANSPs — including principally DFS in Germany, Spain’s AENA and France’s DSNA — except that they used ATN routers, not a ACARS processor. The SITA deals struck with the European ANSPs also allowed SITA to use the VHF stations to provide airline ACARS service, with the ANSPs contracting in parallel with Collins/ARINC to get data link access to their customer aircraft.

ARINC also sold VHF stations to a few European ANSPs, although far fewer than SITA. Some European ANSPs did not buy stations from either SITA or Collins/ARINC and instead established VHF service contracts with both.

“The problem with all these arrangements in the first generation of European CPDLC implementation,” said the insider, “was that the ANSPs did not create any central organization to ensure the service worked. And when they all turned on CPDLC, they collapsed the VDL network.” It is expected that a future DSP will not change the ownership model of the underlying air-ground technologies, but will serve to harmonize the procurement and provision of the services under one agent for ANSP use.

“The outcome of that VDL collapse was that the ATC community designated the SESAR Deployment Manager to technically integrate and harmonize the service provided by the combination of the VHF network elements,” he said. “Now they are creating the single DSP to operate the data link service required by the ANSPs, using the combination of the VHF network elements.” He pointed out that the European ANSPs owning VHF ground stations means the European single DSP will use some stations owned by the ANSPs, so there will likely be a complicated combination of contracts.

The European ANSPs, together with Eurocontrol, established the governance for the ATS Common Data Link Services in October 2021, and its organizational structure provides the mechanisms necessary to procure and select a DSP and also to manage its obligations in service. The governance side is organized in two distinct levels: an executive level, which envisages the presence of the Top Management Body and the DLS Governance Executive Board, with a management level to oversee the DSP as a DMU. The executive and management bodies are responsible for the DLS strategy management, the DLS governance management, and DSP contract compliance monitoring, as well as liaising with users, airspace users and the regulator.

One candidate that could become the common DSP is understood to be the ESSP organization, which is also working with Inmarsat on the British satellite business’s Iris satellite data link program. Toulouse, France-based ESSP styles itself as an “experienced and dynamic company specialized in the operations and provision of satellite-based services to aviation” — providing EGNOS, the satellite-based augmentation system for precise satellite positioning — and already holds a pan-European certification to deliver ATC-grade CNS services. Other organizations will also be in the running for the DSP and some are likely to give ESSP a run for its money.

Eurocontrol will manage the procurement and assessment process in order to select a Datalink Service Provider and it may want its governance to extend over the new data link service provider. Busy terminal at Heathrow shown above.

Eurocontrol will manage the procurement and assessment process in order to select a DSP, as it did for NewPENS, and although ineligible to become wholly or part of a DSP itself, it may well want its governance to extend over the new data link service provider. In fact, one of the aims of the ACDLS, under the SES Digital Backbone initiative, is common governance. The fact that DLS and NewPENS are both key pillars of the SES Backbone could mean significant convergence in terms of governance at the top level.

ACARS OVER IP SCALABILITY, RELIABILITY AND COST SAVINGS

by Aimee Turner | Jan 30, 2022 | Connectivity

A CARS over IP (AoIP) and broadband connectivity represent an opportunity for aircraft and engine data to shift from traditional ACARS VHF, HF, and safety SATCOM connectivity to more efficient networks, to help preserve the limited bandwidth of traditional networks so they can continue to provide highly reliable communications services for operational- and safety-critical airline information.

AoIP also leverages the advantages of ACARS by exploiting the growing availability and decreasing cost of broadband cellular connectivity on the ground, and IP-capable SATCOM connectivity when airborne. The specific mechanisms vary by aircraft and the type of system used, but in general, standard ACARS 618 messages are encapsulated in IP messages between the aircraft and ground-based message handlers for processing.

Because AoIP uses broadband IP communications, which have a much higher effective throughput than VHF and HF, it is a highly scalable long-term solution. And that’s important, because one particular benefit of AoIP is the ability to offload the growing volume of aircraft operations ACARS information from VHF, HF, and narrow-band safety services SATCOM, which do not have the network performance requirements that dispatch-critical or ATS ACARS applications demand.

This means that airlines that have seen costs spiraling as a result of growing aircraft operations data volume could see cost savings by moving aircraft operations ACARS messages to AoIP, which is often delivered at a flat rate.

Its champions say that segregating the use of AoIP for large aircraft operations ACARS applications and using VHF, safety services SATCOM, and HFDL for airline operational critical ACARS information offers airlines proven VHF and SATCOM safety services connectivity for operational and safety critical ACARS information. In addition, AoIP data can be integrated directly into an airline’s existing ACARS infrastructure with no ground side automation changes.

Airlines have grown to depend on ACARS information to reliably operate and dispatch aircraft. In fact, it can be argued that ACARS has become “dispatch-critical” for airline operations. Airlines will rely on VHF or HF ACARS communications for safe and reliable operations for the foreseeable future, although the need to improve the performance and capacity of traditional ACARS networks will continue as the volume of aircraft operations traffic from next generation aircraft increases.

In a September 2021 white paper on the impact of aircraft information data, Collins Aerospace pointed out that if forecasts become reality, demand will soon outpace VHF and HF capacity, and that in some regions, capacity limitations are already impacting operations. Its analysis of traffic on its ACARS network, GLOBALink, to compare aircraft operations data — in this case the OEM/Engine Digital Flight Data (DFD) application — among aircraft types demonstrates the difference in DFD ACARS volume among older and newer generations of aircraft, with newer generation aircraft generating significantly more DFD data.

Collins Aerospace’s projection of new-generation aircraft growth shows a significant increase in the percentage of new-generation aircraft compared with “legacy” aircraft over the next 15 years, when the new-generation aircraft fleet is projected to grow from 9% to 57% of all operational airline aircraft, as older aircraft are retired. With these aircraft generating significantly more AI ACARS data, there will be continued stress on VHF ACARS capacity without any change.

Ian Galloway

Indeed, to examine the stress that the growth of new generation aircraft might put on VHF capacity, Collins conducted an assessment of VHF traffic growth over the next 15 years using the new-generation aircraft growth estimate, considering ACARS growth with and without AoIP for aircraft operations ACARS information.

The assessment shows a potential growth factor of up to 2.4 times that of 2019, pre-COVID levels of VHF-based AI traffic without considering a migration of AI traffic to AoIP. It also shows that AoIP has the capability to preserve VHF capacity for critical airline operations and air traffic services by migrating aircraft operations ACARS applications away from VHF.

“The forecast shows that strong market adoption of AoIP would result in nearly half the VHF ACARS traffic over the next 15 years,” according to Collins. “While we expect VHF traffic will grow slightly as new aircraft are introduced, it could be much less dramatic with the use of AoIP. This would equate to improvements of performance to the datalink network.”

Ian Galloway is head of connected aircraft enablement services at Collins Aerospace, which has offered services since the late ‘70s to enable ACARS messaging to be processed. In the last five years, it has offered the technology to enable ACARS messaging to be sent in IP format.

As Galloway pointed out, ACARS is simply a message protocol, and IP is the communications protocol through which it is transmitted, meaning that ACARS messaging can be transmitted over IP-based channels such as cellular and broadband SATCOM, in addition to existing ACARS networks such as VHF. This essentially allows more value by expanding the networks available for ACARS messaging.

“Indeed, both Boeing and Airbus have been pushing hard for this, and what we’ve seen is significant technology capability leaps in recent technical insertion points. We are seeing a lot of interest because of the new aircraft variant types, and the challenge of managing the volume of generated data from those aircraft is huge, while at the same time protecting the VHF network, which must continue to be able to provide safety critical service. Takeup of ACARS over IP is therefore being driven by the airline industry’s investment strategy in modern aircraft,” Galloway said. “As a communications technology provider, we have seen ACARS over IP grow, and we see it as simply extending an airline and its flight operations department’s capability as it leverages an airline’s investment in connectivity in other areas.”

Collins says the new-generation aircraft fleet is projected to grow from 9% to 57% of all operational airline aircraft, as older aircraft are retired. With these aircraft generating significantly more AI ACARS data, there will be continued stress on VHF ACARS capacity without any change. AoIP has the capability to preserve VHF capacity for critical airline operations and air traffic services by migrating aircraft operations ACARS applications away from VHF. Collins image.

Discussing the merits of equipping an aircraft with AoIP, Galloway conceded that the case for equipage is a detailed and complex process for any airline: “It’s a highly complicated argument — anyone can appreciate that putting new avionics on an aircraft needs a business case. The devil is in the details, and depending on what existing avionics you operate, what will ACARS over IP enable, and what will it not enable, will need examining.”

The upside is that AoIP can be a gamechanger in terms of how the technology allows an airline to increase its operational efficiency. Collins sees itself as an avionics supplier and communication services provider whose focus is essentially consultative and highly niche to enable that value to be delivered.

“One thing is for certain — an airline’s flight operations and IT department need to be fully engaged. And while a large airline has the capability to easily understand what the transition will mean and what eventual capability the technology will offer, a smaller airline will almost certainly need many more questions answered and a high level of handholding delivered through a more consultative approach by the supplier,” Galloway said.

From a services perspective, advanced aircraft such as the A320neo and A330neo are equipped with line-fit avionics, which makes the addition of ACARS over IP much less complicated. “Obviously we see a much slower uptake in terms of the aftermarket,” Galloway said. “What we want is for a flight operations department to integrate its traditional ways of working with ACARS over IP. After all, they have built procedures about how data is collected, and all of that has been built around a particular performance profile. So our focus in 2022 will be tweaking and finessing systems as needed so an airline can get the performance it needs. We’ll also be talking to our OEM partners and listening to what they plan to focus on and how we can drive similar standards and protocols. What we would like to make sure of is that ACARS over IP does not fragment and that there continues to be some level of standardization in the use of this technology.”

Murray Skelton is senior director of international sales at Teledyne Controls. For Skelton, the chief value of ACARS over IP is that although ACARS messaging has been around for many years, the use of the IP protocol for ACARS means an airline can start to use networks it could never previously use.

For example, legacy ACARS networks require significant ground infrastructure to provide coverage around the world. As a result, for some operators ACARS coverage can be limited depending on geographical operation. However, with AoIP, ACARS data can be sent over IP networks such as cellular. Skelton said it comes as no surprise that the global cellular radio networks have far greater ground network coverage than the current ACARS services. What’s more, he said, is that the ground cellular networks are scaled to provide voice and data services to millions of devices, and the IP data bandwidths they provide are thousands of times greater than ACARS message bandwidths.

SITA’s Euan Mitchell stressed that the use of operational connected applications, like graphical weather and fuel optimization applications, is rocketing. There are new air traffic control features coming too, like trajectory-based operations. All of this means more capacity and performance are needed.

“The scalability and capability of IP networks over classic ACARS is such that networks like cellular also remove some of the ACARS usage limitations in terms of cost and message volumes,” he added. “Cellular data tariffs, roaming costs have been reducing for many years as technology refreshes, while IP bandwidth and availability has been growing exponentially. So not only does ACARS over IP increase the availability of the ACARS service, it also greatly reduces the data usage costs and allows more airlines to use it for many more operational tasks.”

AoIP takes advantage of IP security technology such as PKI VPN tunneling to ensure AoIP messages are encrypted end to end, providing a more secure messaging solution, according to Teledyne Controls. Teledyne Controls image.

Teledyne has long experience with ACARS, having been one of the original manufacturers of the first ACARS management units. Its cellular WQAR (wireless quick access recorder) equipment, the GroundLink Comm+, is installed on about 70% of the current global passenger aircraft fleet, and this technology can also deliver an ACARS over IP service for GroundLink customers. Teledyne has around 1,000 commercial air transport aircraft today either actively using or installing Ground Datalink, its AoIP over solution on its GroundLink Comm+ system. It also provides an option to use other IP networks for AoIP and AID+ connectivity through the GroundLink, such as Ka and Ku broadband IFE SATCOM, which in combination with cellular provides AoIP in all flight phases, using low-cost high-bandwidth IP networks.

Skelton pointed out that IP technology for ACARS also provides additional advantages over the current ACARS legacy systems. In today’s world, data cybersecurity is rightly a serious concern for all airlines. AoIP takes advantage of IP security technology such as PKI VPN tunneling to ensure that, unlike classic ACARS, all the AoIP messages are encrypted end to end, providing a much more secure messaging solution for aircraft operations.

In 2022, Skelton foresees a huge resurgence in airline interest in AoIP and aircraft IP connectivity in general. Airlines are looking to 2022 to get their operations back to pre-COVID levels, and operational cost reduction will be key as their recovery begins in earnest. In addition to recovery, the airline industry is facing new challenges such as new operational carbon reduction targets. To achieve these targets, airlines will need to focus on operational efficiency, and much of that will require more and better operational data monitoring driven by new connectivity solutions such as AoIP and real-time IP connectivity solutions.

Skelton predicts a very different uptake profile in 2022 for AoIP and aircraft IP connectivity solutions in general: “The 2021 recovery did not come back as expected in terms of traffic growth, although new airline business for Teledyne in the later part of 2021 demonstrated the growing confidence of our customers for a 2022 recovery, indicating that solutions like ACARS over IP are very likely to be a growth market.”

Euan Mitchell is senior product manager at SITA’s AIRCOM Cockpit Services. He sees huge benefits of encapsulating ACARS messages sent over IP networks, and quite a few of SITA’s customers have already gone in this direction or are seriously considering it through trials or through targeted deployments on sub-fleets.

He points out that ACARS as a messaging protocol is deeply embedded into an airline’s operation, touching almost every department of the airline and integrated into many back-office systems and processes that airlines use to run their operations. “This means that while the onboard changes required to implement ACARS over IP need to be carefully considered, from a ground perspective, keeping ACARS as the language an airline is used to speaking means there is little to no ground integration to consider,” Mitchell said. “As a communications service provider, we are able to deliver AoIP messages in exactly the same way to our customers as we do ACARS over VHF or satellite, through the same infrastructure, connectivity and to the same host application on the airline side. The simplicity of this is a big win for the airline.”

He said there are several flavors of AoIP solutions now coming out of the major airframers, and that the early adopters of such solutions did so (and are still doing so) on a retrofit basis. “This means they have had to craft a business case, which makes sense to the purse-string owners within the airline, to perform modification to the aircraft. Depending on the solution, this can in some cases be relatively simple and affordable.”

The successful cases SITA has seen with its customers, according to Mitchell, have been based around several benefits:

In terms of expansion of ground coverage, today most airlines base a lot of the aircraft turnaround processes on ACARS messaging. If an airline is flying to an airport that does not have VHF radio coverage, or is parked at a gate that is blocked from coverage, it has to resort to manual processes, which is painful, Mitchell said, and also inefficient in both time and cost. So connecting the aircraft to terrestrial cellular (3G/4G/5G) generally provides great coverage and enables a consistent ACARS-based turnaround process across the airline’s network.

Mitchell said this expansion of coverage also has benefits to the communications service provider, in that a VHF/VDL radio does not have to necessarily be deployed in airports where it’s not economically viable. “We have a great example of this with our customer Cebu Pacific in the Philippines. They fly to loads of airports where it is just not feasible to deploy a radio station. They deployed ACARS over IP (terrestrial cellular) where there is good coverage in the Philippines; and their aircraft can now connect at all their airports. That’s a big win.”

In terms of higher bandwidth, Mitchell said, “It’s quite amazing what the airline industry and communication service provider community have achieved over the decades, with 2.4 kbps of Very High Frequency radio throughput, and the value this has generated for the industry; but IP networks change the game, they basically put us into a place of almost unlimited capacity.”

This is good for two main reasons, according to Mitchell: First, the airline can now turn on everything. There is almost no limit now to what an airline can decide to offload from the aircraft on the ground, which previously was limited by the physics of the networks being used. The other advantage is cost, with the physics of the networks also dictating the cost of using the networks. “We effectively have to price consumption in a way that does not encourage levels of usage that the network can’t support. Enter IP, and we can move to pretty much unlimited levels of consumption for a fixed price, which supports the airline’s business case,” he said.

Also, AoIP solutions generally are created with security in mind from the beginning, during the design phase, which means they are highly secured, using things like VPN and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), while adding an IP network into an overall communication ecosystem, or “network of networks,” provides greater resilience in that if one network fails, there exists another chance for the aircraft to connect.

For Mitchell, there is one final benefit: IP networks will help the industry manage growth. “The topic of growth is not something that has really been labored over the past 24 months, but the challenge of managing growth never really left us,” he said. “Modern aircraft consume more than their predecessors, the use of operational connected applications is rocketing (e.g. graphical weather applications and fuel optimization applications), and there are new air traffic control features coming too, like trajectory-based operations. All of this means we need more capacity — and performance — in our networks. And using IP, particularly to move “non-safety” or non-ATC messages off the existing and approved communications networks, is going to benefit the whole community.”

Aerospace Cyber Threats Grow With Increased Connectivity

by Aimee Turner | Aug 29, 2021 | Connectivity

Today’s aircraft are increasingly connected – from passenger inflight entertainment systems through to flight deck and avionics connectivity and yet, as more and more data is being generated, transporting that to and from the aircraft expediently and securely to its destination is becoming increasingly important.

Sensitivity over data security has increased in the United States over recent months following the attack on Colonial Pipeline which carries gasoline and jet fuel from Texas up the East Coast to New York. While the company was not specific with the details, the White House and FBI disclosed it was due to a ransomware attack, in which criminal groups hold data hostage until the victim pays a ransom. This breach has heightened fears over the vulnerability of not only the nation’s energy infrastructure to cyber-attacks but the transportation sector too especially as the national aviation system starts to ramp up operations as the pandemic’s impact is harnessed.

In a June 2 open letter to corporate executives and business leaders the White House deputy national security advisor for cyber and emergency technology, appealed for business leaders to view ransomware not as a data theft problem, but rather as a threat to their core business – with the ability to halt operations and cut off the company’s revenue stream.

Florent Rizzo
CEO, CyberInflight

And it is by no means a national weakness. Florent Rizzo of the Toulouse, France-based CyberInflight intelligence consultancy points to the latest European statistics on the aviation cyber threat. The EATM-CERT (European Air Traffic Management Computer Emergency Response Team) which supports Europe’s air navigation safety agency EUROCONTROL as well as European air traffic management stakeholders in protecting themselves against cyber threats, demonstrates an ever-present danger.

Based on its research, the number of publicly known cyber-attacks on airlines, airports, air navigation service providers and other aviation stakeholders in 2019 was estimated to be below 100. Worryingly, a July 2021 report from the EATM-CERT clearly highlights the concern with cyber-attacks rising by 530 per cent between 2019 and 2020, with ‘startling impacts across market segments’.

Within that threat environment however, the proliferation of ransomware activities during 2020 is evident. In France for example, ANSSI which is the country’s national security agency, documented a threefold increase in the annual number of reported incidents from 54 in 2019 to 192 in 2020.

Industrial Insight

Regine Bonneau is CEO and founder of Winter Park, Florida-based RB Advisory, a security compliance and cyber risk management solutions expert that serves a client rollcall featuring many businesses that support the US Department of Defense. She believes that cyber security will only become more of a critical issue for businesses that have to convert the value of the data they collect to make it a meaningful business tool such as airlines. She warns however that those who fail to realize the critical value of data effectively leave the door wide open to attacks because a malicious cyber enemy will never be slow to spot and exploit your failure here.

Regine Bonneau
CEO, RB Advisory

Bonneau chronicles the key moment data became a critical element in the cyber security landscape. She says it started simply enough with the development of industry marketing platforms which started converting the customer contact rolodex into electronic databases that supported automated email and call targeting campaigns. And while those data driven analytics are now crucial to driving a business’s profitability, they also potentially have become its weakest link.

The Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) is working to increase the awareness regarding the regulations and standards of aviation systems with its published industry assessment and recommendations establishing cyber security standards for avionic systems.

Bonneau advises that the first step is to classify exactly what data you as a business are collecting and its importance in terms of value and usability. “Really scrutinize your business and ask yourself, who has access to these data collections. Ask yourself who are they and why are they using this data.” Continuous monitoring is required here — and not only within your own organization but without too so considerations about a business’s supply chain will immediately come to bear. “If you don’t control who has access to your customer information, you are potentially handing over admin rights to your data,” Bonneau says. “Key to your approach should be control of your data outside your own organization to your supplier because that extension of you as a business represents your biggest risk.”

Then, Bonneau says, a business would be wise to look at what it collects in terms of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which deals with any sort of sensitive information associated with a specific person, which can be used to identify or locate that individual.

“This is at the top of the value pyramid but do you have the technology to identify where this data is and how it can be encrypted? Can you ensure industry-standard ‘data privacy by design’ which is conducted through a close assessment of the sort of data that is being collected?” Bonneau asks.

Solutions: Digital Certificates

One facet of the aviation cybersecurity effort is the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), which uses digital certificates for authentication, integrity, and encryption. Industry standards such as ARINC 842 and ATA Spec 42 provide guidance for securing digital assets in the aviation industry using PKI. Teledyne Controls, which was the first to introduce in the late 1990s wireless technology as a viable means to securely and automatically transfer large volumes of data between the aircraft and the airline’s ground network, has over two decades of experience in securing the delivery of its customers’ data to its final destination. The company’s popular Teledyne GroundLink Comm+ system, which is in service on over 10,000 aircraft worldwide, uses IPSec VPNs to provide secure transport for data from the aircraft to the ground and vice versa use ATA Spec 42-compliant digital certificates to provide authenticity, confidentiality, and integrity. Flight data payloads are encrypted to ensure confidentiality for data at rest. The IPSec VPN tunnels also protect data that is uploaded — for example with Teledyne groundlink dataloading, loadable software parts, navigation databases and application updates that are wirelessly distributed to the aircraft’s onboard data loaders, are protected. The GroundLink Comm+ also serves as an aircraft interface device (AID), enabling flight deck connectivity for Electronic Flight Bags while digital certificates are also employed to ensure only authenticated devices can connect to the AID.

Solutions: Business Aviation Monitoring

The significance of cyber security for the owners and operators of corporate business jets is acute. Josh Wheeler, director of customer services at Satcom Direct, a business which is a leader in cyber security support for aviation. Its ecosystem is built on an open architecture platform which means third party providers can plug into the SD Pro digital dashboard to help customers manage data transmission from third party organizations through a single platform.

SD is an ISP in its own right so can provide services that ensure data never touches the public network and combines technology with best-in-class cyber security expertise to help create a virtual flying office supported by a whole set of experts monitoring for abnormal data patterns in addition to a SD Incident Response Team. Should SD’s system flag a critical breach it automatically blocks the data transmission and the flight department will be called to take care of the device in question

“Five years ago, we spotted the vulnerability of high-speed data systems but the industry was not really aware of their security weakness. Hackers, after all, don’t understand that it is a corporate jet, they just see an IP address,” says Wheeler who explains that SD conducted a study before launching the service after being shocked to find highly valuable corporate data could be so easily accessed. “The more data you use,” he says, “the more vulnerable you are, and the most secure aircraft is the one that stays on the ground, offline. Altitude does not make you safe because if you can get on to the internet, cyber attackers can get to you.”

What the core SD cyber service actually is, is a series of firewalls and sophisticated tools, combined with human cyber expertise, to monitor data streams. SD also plans to launch in the third quarter of this year a service called Advanced Encryption which is purpose built for business aviation to further strengthen data security, offering a protective defense layer that essentially cloaks the entire aircraft network without compromising speed or performance. Using proprietary technology, it optimizes a secure accelerated tunnel through which encrypted anonymized data passes from the aircraft to the ground network and back – dispensing with the need for VPN on personal digital devices.

Some threats the company CybelAngel has exposed as vulnerable are areas of airport security, details of air marshal identity and assigned flights, security badge design templates that could be easily duplicated by bad actors and critical infrastructure plans showing aviation fuel supply routes, among others.

SD offering essentially centres on stackable, tailored services on a turnkey availability basis and this has been driven by charter outfits that do not have a big corporate backbone but who wish to ensure secure and completely anonymous communications for their customers. That’s not surprising since the industry is witnessing an explosion in ransomware attacks which have bypassed security protocols with a lot more breaches via mobile phones rather than laptops.

Solutions: Scanning for Visibility

Todd Carroll is chief information security officer with Paris, France-based CybelAngel which has developed a digital risk protection platform that constantly scans for keywords on behalf of its clients using Machine Learning techniques.

CybelAngel’s platform has the ability to process data gleaned from billions of documents readily accessible on the internet. Carroll recounts how one of its aerospace engineering manufacturing clients was developing a brand-new turboprop engine and was using a Taiwanese manufacturer to make the mounting components to attach the engine on to the wing which meant it had to send detailed drawings over the internet.

As part of a routine security protocol requested by the business, CybelAngel’s scanning technology revealed how the engine manufacturer’s confidential designs were wide open to public scrutiny. Carroll says he has been amazed at the things his business has also exposed as vulnerable in the areas of airport security such as details of air marshal identity and assigned flights, security badge design templates that could be easily duplicated by bad actors and critical infrastructure plans showing aviation fuel supply routes.

Todd Carroll
CIO, CybelAngel

Collaborative Approach

CyberInflight’s Rizzo says that not only have companies become better at detection since 2019 but also the information sharing landscape has evolved positively with Information sharing not only increasingly accepted but also seen as an important mean of improving the resilience among aerospace stakeholders.

He cites the increasing participation of more and more stakeholders in information sharing communities such as the Aviation ISAC, the Space ISAC and Boost Aerospace in Europe. A series of events has also shown an increasing interest from the aviation industry for onboard cyber security. In August 2019, the DEFCON conference held its first Aviation Village event which gathers aviation and security experts, government agencies and industry leaders. Here the US Air Force (USAF) allowed a small team of pre-selected security researchers to perform tests on the data transfer system of an F-15 military jet and was sufficiently convinced by the results to renew its presence with a different challenge every year.

For the 2020 event, the USAF and the Department of Defense gathered more than 1,300 researchers and hackers and set them the task of penetrating an actual satellite orbiting around earth. The popularity of this collaborative approach seems to be spreading with the link between cyber security researchers and the industry becoming stronger through the use of more vulnerability disclosure programs such as those launched by Boeing and Thales. “It is now easier for cyber security researchers to find this process on the internet; clear guidelines are given to researchers with a step-by-step process to follow and with a dedicated email address,” says Rizzo.

Various international institutions and associations such as the AIA, the Aerospace Industry Association, are also working to increase the awareness regarding the regulations and standards of aviation systems with its published industry assessment and recommendations establishing cyber security regulations and standards for avionic systems in which it recommends that the next revision of ARINC 628 incorporates security appropriately in particular for IFE interface systems.

In July 2020, EASA which is ensuring safety and security in civil aviation in Europe also amended rules related to the product certification to mitigate the potential effects of cyber security threats to reflect the state of the art of the protection of products and equipment against cyber security threats.

Independent cyber security consultant Rob Hill is a passionate evangelist for aviation cyber security. He salutes these first invitations from the primes to invite the research community to collaborate. “

All the many teams of engineers that work on cyber security are highly competent but they just do not share, they need to be telling everyone where the weakest point could be,” he says. “The risk level is higher in aviation simply because no one talks about cyber security and there are no open conversations as a result. When do we change…when the pain of not changing exceeds the pain of doing anything?”

Hill says the single most important action by the industry should be to get the word out that avionics need to be monitored and protected from possible intrusion. “Most aircraft operators and owners are not monitoring systems now because there has been no ability to monitor avionics or cabin WIFI on board the aircraft,” he says, “but that issue has been resolved and now the equipment and services to proactively monitor and thwart attacks on avionics and cabin WIFI are readily available.”

He believes the greatest concern and one that is frequently overlooked is the role of the honest mistake by an employee or vendor and when it is a matter of business jet clientele that simple mistake can cost big time. “Around 86 per cent of attacks that occur are financially motivated and let’s face it, a business jet is the biggest billboard going and you only have to give me five minutes and I’ll work out who is using the aircraft.”

For Hill the perfect safety net is having an onboard firewall which does two things – monitors cabin wifi plus 429 Bus monitoring – the avionics data feed “That’s got to be the gold standard,” he says. He does not however discount that there are bad actors working within aviation in charge of avionics upgrades who have all the certifications and authorizations to access aircraft avionics systems although judges the chances of any attack being perpetrated remotely slim. “It is the employee mistakenly uploading or opening a file that can bridge the aircraft’s avionics which is very real,” he says.

Hill touts another alarming statistic – the fact that it takes between six – 18 months before a breach is noticed and points as best practitioners those businesses in the IT and pharma industries as they truly understand what they need to protect in terms of data assets. “It is the mid-size business jet operator with small IT teams which are the most vulnerable,” Hill says, adding that he has seen flight departments of up to 100 people which are still far from perfect in terms of cyber security protocols.

“The worse thing for business jet cyber security is the surprise visitor into the cabin – often a celebrity’s friends and even children of the aircraft owner. Let’s face it, there is a lot of bad stuff on children’s gaming sites. They’re often not all that they seem and hackers will target children to get malware into the system. Invariably, the point of entry is human.”

He suspects that across many Fortune 500 businesses, there is a culture of acceptance as some of the weaknesses that cyber attacks lay bare are just too expensive to fix and it is cheaper to pay the ransom.

Data sharing concerns

Strengthening security measures does come with challenges, and in many cases requires increasing cooperation between various organizational departments. For example, while the data itself may be used by the flight operations or maintenance engineering departments, securing the data may be the responsibility of the IT/infrastructure departments. Use of PKI also comes with the additional overhead of digital certificate management although here, Teledyne Controls says it provides support for its products to customers who wish to enable the connectivity of their fleets while operating them securely.

Another challenge worth mentioning is data ownership. OEMs want data from the airlines, but airlines as the data owners may only want to share with them the relevant data. Teledyne’s Data Delivery Solution (DDS) addresses this issue by providing the means for airlines to control what data can be distributed to OEMs for prognostics, maintenance, health management, etc. As a fully managed cloud-based service, DDS quickly establishes automatic flows of airline-owned full series data directly from the aircraft into the OEMs data platforms. The airlines retain full control over the sharing of their data by selecting what data parameters lists they agree to share with what data consumer.

Upgrade/Test Considerations

Another challenge that the industry faces is patch management. Vulnerabilities are being discovered at an ever-increasing rate. However, hardware and software installed on aircraft must go through a certification process and cannot easily be updated in an expedient manner in the same way that ground-based systems can be. As Rob Hill points out, a comprehensive penetration test to ascertain whether systems are sufficiently robust could even render the warranties and certification of some aircraft systems void. There is increasing acknowledgement that airlines, OEMs, and suppliers now need to work with regulators (FAA, EASA, etc.) in order to establish requirements and guidelines for ensuring the continued security of connected aircraft.

This issue of baked-in compliance for Bonneau is important as the weakest links can often be found within the older venerable names in the aviation manufacturing and operational landscape as their older legacy systems are frequently just not equipped to deal with the infuriating litheness of today’s cyber threat environment. “It’s not really about the technology it’s about compliance. The thing you need to ask yourself is,” Bonneau says, “have you driven your security approach to the end point in all the layers yourself and have you incentivized your supply chain to do the same?”

Once this process is complete, a business then needs to examine its resilience. Here, it is not a question of when, but a question of how, Bonneau says: “Ask yourself, what do I have in place to contain an attack and how quickly can I re-establish the business?”

All this requires continuous security assessment. There also has to be a frank acknowledgement that a business will never be 100 per cent protected and for Bonneau, it’s all about layers, about being prepared and ready at all levels with that layering of maturity applying equally to your sub-contractors. It’s a case of “we learn, we assess our status, we understand the gaps and we work towards a future goal – and this is a continuous process.”

CybelAngel’s Todd Carroll echoes this, recommending that businesses ensure that vendor and suppliers contracts are watertight. “It has to be a case of continuous and layered monitoring. You need to know where your critical data could be potentially exposed leaving your business vulnerable. Essentially, you need to be proactive here or else someone will steal your R&D. Ask yourself, ‘who are your cyber security suppliers? are they the ones you have had for decades and you must ask yourself, are they still up to the job? You need to put resources into this, conduct an RFP on today’s requirement, and really ask yourself, do your existing suppliers meet the challenge?”