Human factors — such as relying on automation, adapting to an ecosystem or trusting standards — likely will play a role as crucial to aviation cybersecurity (CS) as to aviation safety, says an expert panel. Technological advances also may matter less than the human factors, said William R. Voss, president of the Washington branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the moderator of the February discussion.
Citing the unprecedented absence of any passenger airline fatalities in 2017, Voss added, “That happened not because the aviation system demands perfection — but quite the opposite. The system is probably more robust and tolerant of error than any other large-scale system built by mankind. Whenever talking about aviation in relation to cybersecurity, keep in mind that we’re working with resilient systems.”
Basic Concepts
Panelist Rob Segers, information security systems engineer for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), characterized security of …
