GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Encrypting datalink messages described as a "priority"
The USA is moving to increase the security of the aircraft communications addressing and reporting system (ACARS) by encrypting the datalink messages. Employed globally by airlines for operational communications, and increasingly for air traffic control, easily readable ACARS is also used by the military, including the US Air Force One presidential transport, raising concerns about security.
A demonstration of secure, encrypted ACARS has been conducted for the US Air Force and a proposal submitted to the multi-agency Technical Support Working Group responsible for co-ordinating research into combating terrorism, says Les Hanes, aerospace site lead at Honeywell Laboratories. He describes secure ACARS as "a real priority".
Encrypting ACARS has been under discussion for some time, and in late 2002 datalink service providers Arinc and Sita documented a common set of airline and industry needs. Airline concerns identified included data confidentiality, hacker intrusion into aircraft systems, spoof messages and terrorist threats, with better data authentication and integrity required for air traffic service applications. But Arinc and Sita concluded airlines would resist additional security-related costs unless there was a good business case or an overriding mandate.
Secure ACARS "is likely to happen", says Dan Pendergast, Arinc's director, GlobaLink datalink services. Arinc has been working with users and avionics providers to ensure network performance is not compromised by encryption, he says. Options include encrypting just the air-ground radio link or end-to-end solutions that can handle both encrypted and unencrypted messages from dispatcher to aircraft over analogue and digital datalinks.
Honeywell says it has developed a single prototype cryptographic solution that supports both commercial and military needs, end-to-end and air-ground security implementations and both ACARS and its follow-on, the aeronautical telecommunications network. Pendergast says the goal is a standardised approach that can accommodate multiple implementations to meet the different commercial and military requirements.
Source: Flight International
