Honeywell has completed flight tests of a method for securing airline air-to-ground data link messages that are otherwise easy for anyone to intercept.
Frank Daly, president of Honeywell Commercial Electronic Systems, says that individuals with cheap radio scanners and freeware available on the Internet can monitor these messages all too easily and intercept flight plans and other sensitive information. Computer enthusiasts often retrieve such aviation information and post it on public Web sites.
The technology also has potential application in the military and U.S. Air Force officials from Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB in Illinois and from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio participated in a three-hour flight test of the technique. The U.S. Air Force co-funded the research with Honeywell, which also has many airline customers that are interested.
The Honeywell Communications Management Unit (CMU) uses industry standard cryptographic technology to secure the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) messages. These are the type typically sent from pilots of passenger and cargo jets to their airline companies. In the test monitored by the U.S. Air Force, messages were transmitted from aircraft and other communications were received from the ground over an ACARS network operated by SITA.
Honeywell processed the messages at its global data center in Redmond, Washington. The new cryptographic capability also provides message authentication, ensures that messages are not corrupted, uses data compression to trim message size by 30% and enables operators to customize the system to meet specific security policies.
The new system complies with International Civil Aviation Organization security requirements that will govern how data-link communications are conducted in the future.
