RAF needs experts to protect jets from hackers
‘As aircraft platforms get more connected, you want to make sure that they are secure’
THE RAF is recruiting experts in cyber security to check its planes for weaknesses, amid fears of hacking attacks on aircraft in any future conflict.
Commanders have been advertising for cyber experts to check aircraft and their computer support systems for vulnerabilities.
Modern planes are increasingly reliant upon online systems connected both to each other and to systems back at base, but these networks could be open to military hackers, experts said.
The RAF has advertised for experienced computer security experts to carry out “cyber vulnerability analysis and investigations on air platforms and air systems” as part of 591 Signals Unit.
RAF sources said the work would include analysing attempts to hack into RAF systems. Tim Robinson, editor-inchief of Aerospace magazine, said: “It’s a growing battlespace in the aviation arena and as these aircraft platforms get more connected, you want to make sure that they are secure.”
He said the new F-35B stealth fighter would be sharing huge amounts of data, and its systems back at base, which ensure the fighter has ready supplies of fuel, parts and ammunition, would also have to be protected. The new plane’s systems run on more than eight million lines of software code.
“If someone got into [the back end] and re-routed all your spares, why would one have to bomb a runway? All this information and systems to keep aircraft operational, these have vulnerabilities you have to look at,” he said.
Unmanned drones such as the RAF Reapers and the new Protector drone would also need to be protected.
He said: “The unmanned aerial vehicles are flown by satellite link. You want to make sure that all those are encrypted so no one can re-route them.”
Modern aircraft are so reliant on networked computer systems that a successful cyber attack on an aircraft could play havoc with its systems.
The US Air Force admitted earlier this year that an attack could potentially scramble navigation aids and make it impossible to identify friend from foe. A successful hacker could also take control of an aircraft’s lifesupport systems, potentially altering the oxygen flow to the pilot.
Mr Robinson said attacks were unlikely to come from cyber criminals, or bedroom hackers, but dedicated military specialists in “near peer” rivals such as Russia or China.
An RAF spokesman said the new roles were “within one of our specialist defensive units, to assure the protection of the RAF’S aircraft and their support systems”.