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NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration – is examining blockchain technology as a means of ensuring the privacy and security of aircraft flight data.
Ronald Reisman, an aeronautical engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center, published an article on Monday, suggesting that blockchain networks and smart contracts can help mitigate some security issues.
As of January 1, 2020, the United States has been mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to use a new surveillance system – Automatic monitoring of employee monitoring (ADS-B) – which will publicly transmit the identity, position and other information of the aircraft.
This has raised security concerns among stakeholders, Reisman said in his paper, explaining that the ADS-B system "does not include provisions to maintain the same aircraft privacy options, nor does it address the potential for spoofing, denial of service and other well-documented risk factors. "
Civil airlines would prefer to keep some private data, for example, writes to fight monitoring executives as part of corporate espionage operations.
Data on military air traffic, meanwhile, are defined by the Department of Defense as "Information that, if disclosed, would reveal vulnerabilities in the critical infrastructure of the DoD and, if exploited, would likely cause significant disruption, destruction or damage or DoD Transactions. , properties or structures. "
Considering the sensitivity of air traffic data, military confidentiality requirements "will probably remain decisive in their adoption and use of ADS-B," writes Reisman.
To address these and other problems, the researcher presents a prototype on paper, dubbed Aviation Blockchain Infrastructure (ABI), based on Hyperledger Fabric and smart contracts, which allows control over which data is shared publicly or privately with authorized entities.
For example, the "status information" of the aircraft, such as the altitude, the speed indicated, the direction, etc., could be kept secure via a private channel, while the flight plan information, such as the type of aircraft, the origin, the destination, the archived itinerary, etc. , can be published on a public channel for access to approved members.
Reisman says:
"We propose to use a" slightly authorized "blockchain framework to allow ADS-B systems to meet or exceed the same levels of privacy and security currently provided by radar-based systems in the NAS [National Airspace System]".
This is not the first time that NASA aims to explore blockchain in search of technological improvements. Back in February, the agency has granted $ 330,000 a a professor at the University of Akron, to support ethereum blockchain technology research to automatically detect floating debris.
NASA image through Shutterstock; diagram using NASA paper
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