Technology Dangers

Technology is an inevitable evolution in our society and, in many cases, it does manage to make our lives easier, more streamlined, and allow us to focus more on those critical, cognitive skills that cannot be managed by a machine. However, technology, like every good superhero, always has a weakness that can be exploited by ambitious villains.

In business aviation, the weakness of technology can cause defeat in various ways. First, there is the basic but endless task of keeping up with changing electronic systems and learning how best to utilize the tools we are given. In a world where sometimes the only thing certain is change, this can be challenging enough as we find ourselves occasionally cast as the old dog having to learn new tricks to remain relevant and safe in our industry. There are also other more nefarious issues with technology that can, at a minimum, cause disruption to operations and at its worst, cause fatalities.

In October 2022, pro-Russian hackers were able to render some major U.S. airports unreachable through denial-of-service attacks. Though merely a nuisance in this instance because airport operations were ultimately not affected, it has caught the attention of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), who updated their aviation security programs to require cybersecurity coordinators for airport and aviation operations, as well as a reporting structure for cybersecurity incidents along with a remediation and response plan for such events. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that for future airport terminal grants, there must be a consideration to address "physical and cyber security risks relevant to the transportation mode and type and scale of the project." Projects that do not demonstrate this ability will not receive funds for construction. The FAA is also calling for federal communications officials to place restrictions on smaller cellphone carriers as 5G-related disruptions are creating interference for some radar altimeters before retrofitted altimeters can be installed in airframes to mitigate increasing risks.

While the Government Accountability Office (GAO) states there have been no reports of a successful cyberattack on aircraft avionics, they admit we must start to look for protections as we can expect for vulnerabilities to arise as they note, "modern airplanes are equipped with networks and systems that share data with the pilots, passengers, maintenance crews, other aircraft, and air-traffic controllers."

At the recent National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), an education session led by NBAA's senior director of air traffic services and infrastructure discussed the complications that arise with maintaining technological privacy in a data-driven, ADS-B-equipped era. As we now have cyber-savvy aviation enthusiasts able to maintain and publish real-time information about air traffic, we begin to create dangers in both personal and corporate air security.

Technology can certainly be a capability multiplier for aviation, but it comes with risks that we must anticipate and address before gaps become too severe to overcome in times of need. We can reasonably guess that Superman would have loved to have known about his weakness to kryptonite before Lex Luther used it to his advantage. While Superman ultimately prevailed that first dangerous encounter, we can only hope that during our own operations, we can do the same when presented with as deadly of a challenge.

We can do this by staying apprised of our emerging technology, anticipating weaknesses, and addressing them before they become a bigger hazard than they should. Stay safe, stay aware, and think ahead—like Superman!