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The aviation world has come a long way from the days when the extent of connectivity in the cabin revolved around self-contained in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) systems comprising a server, distribution system and seatback displays. Being connected was limited to watching a movie offered by the airline or scanning pre-recorded news broadcasts.<\/p>\n
Then came SwiftBroadband service followed by more powerful high-bandwidth satellites and Wi-Fi in the cabin, and with it, a proliferation of passenger smartphones and other devices. It\u2019s not surprising that 81 airlines today offer a full range of IFEC services with the ability for travelers to connect their personal electronic devices (PEDs) to the aircraft\u2019s wireless network.<\/p>\n
Airplanes today are no longer \u201cisolated aluminum tubes,\u201d says Frederick Schreiner, CTO of Thales InFlyt Experience, but nodes in the Internet of Things. \u201cWe\u2019re talking to it; people are able to connect, stream, text and browse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airlines, he added, are increasingly investing in data analytics, not only to differentiate the customer experience with personalized services, but also to create operational efficiencies on the plane.<\/p>\n
Considering these advancements and news about cyberattacks on the ground, the question is whether the aviation sector can stay ahead of resourceful adversaries who have successfully exploited network weaknesses in multiple industries.<\/p>\n
Thales\u2019 CTO said collaborative cybersecurity agreements with Airbus and Boeing ensure \u201cthe cabin and cockpit domains are properly protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the cabin side, we have a number of layered protections within the IFE system to protect from potential attackers who connect to access points on the aircraft,\u201d added Samuel Miller, Thales\u2019 product security officer. \u201cWe are continuously testing and updating and patching those controls to make sure that they can protect the IFE system appropriately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though both Miller and Schreiner agreed that \u201cno one is immune\u201d from threats, they argued that the aviation sector is more process-driven to address security vulnerabilities quickly. That mindset wasn\u2019t in place at Equifax, which was hit by a massive data breach early 2017 that comprised personal data on more than 145 million Americans. The cause: an earlier vulnerability that hadn\u2019t been mediated quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re gearing our processes to quickly identify and contain root causes and take the necessary action to mitigate the impact of these things, so that\u2019s key,\u201d said Schreiner. \u201cYou have to have internal processes that are well aligned to respond quickly. If you can get that institutionalized and the appropriate triggers in place, you can act quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continue reading the full article on Via Satellite\u2019s sister publication Avionics magazine >><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The aviation world has come a long way from the days when the extent of connectivity in the cabin revolved around self-contained in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) systems comprising a server, distribution system and seatback displays. Being connected was limited to watching a movie offered by the airline or scanning pre-recorded news broadcasts. Then came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}