Journal of Airline Operations and Aviation Management

Lately Elon Musk published headlines news that has been focused on his private jet and its whereabouts, leading the billionaire to announce he is taking legal action against a 20-year-old who has been tracking his travels. The US Federal Aviation Administration is proposing an upgrade to air transportation that will fundamentally overhaul the current, aging system. A key component, the automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) system, will enhance air traffic monitoring and control by requiring aircraft to continually broadcast position, identity and velocity via unencrypted data links to ground stations. Although ADS-B may enhance air traffic safety and support the increase in traffic demands, open broadcast of clear aircraft data points raise serious security concerns. The ability to encrypt ADS-B message transactions would afford protection to ensure that the confidentiality of aircraft data is not compromised. The implementation of an encryption framework for a large, distributed and dynamic system, however, is nontrivial. This paper discusses the ADS-B as a tool — the way that it is beneficial and the way it could be exploited.