The Need for a Global Aviation Cybersecurity Defense Policy

Commercial aviation is vital to the economic health of the global economy. Commercial aviation as a global entity should be an international critical infrastructure that constantly safeguards and protects from malicious threats, including cybersecurity threat actors (Nobles, 2019). The international aviation industry needs a comprehensive cybersecurity defense plan to prevent cyber-based threats from negatively impacting civil aviation. Critical components of the global aviation systems consist of airport operations, air traffic management, ground operations, airline operations, unmanned systems, operations (Kessler, Craiger, & Haass, 2018), aviation maintenance, airport security (physical security), and cargo and logistics. The existing aviation infrastructure was designed, engineered, and implemented without forbearance on cybersecurity (Kessler, Craiger, & Haass, 2018). The lack of international cyber governance impedes the enforcement of cybersecurity policies; therefore, requiring a global-based alliance to create standards and best practices for evaluating and managing cybersecurity risks (Urban, 2017), especially in commercial aviation.