Monday, September 9 — 8:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Aviation Cyber Security Track

Aviation cyber security is primarily about protecting the safe, secure, economical, efficient, comfortable transport of payload—passengers and cargo—through the air, against adversaries acting via an intangible and evolving cyberspace. It requires all stakeholders to come together to understand, identify, assess, and mitigate new security threats to the global aviation ecosystem. A core challenge for this emerging multi-disciplinary area is that it requires the marriage of two mutually alien topics: aviation and cyber security. This tutorial will provide a bridge to enable this union. The tutorial mainly focuses on the aircraft which is at the core of an increasingly complex, technology-driven aviation ecosystem. 

Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be able to comprehensively summarize and skillfully analyze today’s aviation cyber security landscape. You will be able to differentiate real vs. perceived as well as emerging vs. future threats. You will be able to recall aviation and cyber security terminology, explain cyber security essentials, and illustrate how cyber security applies to the aircraft and its supporting systems. You will be able to evaluate threats from vulnerabilities as well as risks from threats. You will be able to recognize, examine, and compare some of the state-of-the-art and recent advances in aviation cyber security, including those related to systems in manned and unmanned aircraft, air traffic control, airlines, and airports. 

Dr. Krishna Sampigethaya

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University--Prescott

Krishna Sampigethaya is currently the Chair for the Department of Cyber Intelligence and Security at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ, located in the one and only College of Security and Intelligence in the US. https://prescott.erau.edu/college-security-intelligence/department-of-cyber-intelligence-and-security

Krishna received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Washington (2007) and was one of the first in the world to defend a thesis on connected vehicle privacy and aviation cyber security research. He then joined The Boeing Company and was soon selected as the first Boeing Associate Technical Fellow for aviation cyber-physical security in 2012. Most recently he was an Associate Director for cyber security at the United Technologies Corporation (UTC) Research Center (2016-2018), focusing on the security of aerospace systems and commercial products. He has also been an Assistant Director for the Masters in Telecom program at the University of Maryland (2014-2015), developing new courses on software-defined networks and connected vehicles.

Krishna founded the first aviation cyber security technical committee, sponsored by the SAE in 2008, and has been organizing aviation cyber security tracks at SAE as well as AIAA/IEEE conferences since then. He co-edited the first special issue on cyber-physical systems, published in the first centennial year issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE journal (2012). He has authored over 50 papers—including 3 award-winning publications (at IEEE DASC and I-CNS)—delivered over 16 keynotes, and holds over 16 US patents in aviation cyber security. His work has been recognized in the community with awards such as the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI) Engineer of the Year Award (2013), ASEI Corporate Engineering Excellence Award (2013), and a Best Instructor Award at UMD (2015).