Latest Platform Enhancement Assists Commercial Aircraft Operators to Meet the FAA’s Aircraft Network Security Program Requirements, Helping Ensure Flight Safety
Rosslyn, VA, April 03, 2023 – Shift5, the onboard data company, today announced the release of the Shift5 Compliance Module. This latest addition to the Shift5 platform helps aviation, rail, and defense customers automate compliance efforts for data created on board fleet vehicles. This inaugural release, designed for commercial air operators and in partnership with aviation industry experts, enables the automation of Aircraft Network Security Program (ANSP) requirements for connected aircraft as detailed in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular (AC) 119-1. The new module helps make compliance easier and faster and provides rules-based log file analysis that can help enhance the safety and cybersecurity of connected aircraft.
Modern connected aircraft use advanced IP-based systems alongside serial-based onboard operational technology (OT) systems, which generate vast amounts of raw data; a single aircraft can log countless events, making manual assessment and prioritization of risks virtually impossible. The Shift5 platform ingests, analyzes, and can visualize anomalies in core aircraft network security log files automatically. In the last year, Shift5 has processed 200,000 data crates, compressed aircraft logs from avionics, containing more than 9 billion messages from three aircraft fleets.
With the Shift5 platform, commercial aviation security teams can apply operator- and OEM-provided rulesets to analyze aircraft log files, identify and assess anomalies caused by human error or malicious intent, and prioritize events using Shift5’s proprietary machine learning models based on the MITRE ATT&CK™ Framework. The platform collects log files using existing aircraft data offloading processes.
For aircraft certified with a special condition (SC) related to the security of their onboard computer networks, a key component of an ANSP requires operators to aggregate, decode, monitor, and alert on potential security conditions in aircraft network security log files. With the Shift5 platform, operators can easily and automatically:
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Retain security log files for recordkeeping and compliance purposes
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Conduct continuous or scheduled analyses of log files to detect anomalies
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Report any anomalies or threats in a manner consistent with industry policies
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Verify compliance with a documented ANSP, and identify threats to the system
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Export aircraft log file analysis to existing systems like ticketing and SIEM
The Shift5 platform’s compliance capabilities unpack and normalize log file data that may vary widely across aircraft manufacturers, platforms, and similar aircraft, automatically standardizing the data into a consistent, actionable format. This enables operators to stitch together consistent data sets and quickly identify abnormalities in global fleets. The platform centralizes aircraft data and analysis, providing a quick and easy method to access information to improve aircraft maintenance, airline operations, and fleet cyber resilience. It can also be deployed as a managed service, providing greater flexibility for teams to focus on other important tasks.
“The pace of innovation in commercial aviation today is exciting, and everyone from the operators to the passengers stands to benefit,” said Josh Lospinoso, CEO and co-founder of Shift5. “In order to make that progressive future-state a reality, operators must follow guidelines set out by the FAA that underpin flight safety. I believe those regulations are critical and that achieving compliance shouldn’t be headache-inducing, so we’re excited to bring commercial airlines a solution that automates compliance efforts, and further, that gives them visibility into their onboard data for the first time.”
The Shift5 Compliance Module supporting ANSP compliance is generally available today. Visit shift5.io for more information.
ABOUT SHIFT5
Shift5 is the onboard data company. Created by officers who stood up U.S. Army Cyber Command and pioneered modern weapons system cyber assessments, Shift5 defends commercial transportation systems and military platforms against operational failures and OT cybersecurity risks. Household name aviation companies, U.S. railroads, and fleets within the U.S. military rely on Shift5 to maintain the readiness and availability of today’s fleets and tomorrow’s next-generation vehicles. For more information, visit https://shift5.io.