World Economic Forum
Résumé: Civil aviation is an incredibly safe mode of transport. Year-on-year statistics referenced by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Annual Safety Report demonstrate this. Considering the forecast of double-digit growth over the next 20 years and the new infrastructure needed to manage capacity and services – and as indirectly evidenced by high levels of consumer confidence documented in widely available growth analysis – continued efforts today will clearly be paramount tomorrow to maintain the safety promise.
Gains in civil aviation have largely been forged thanks to the way that industry, government and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have collaborated on the basis of empirical data. The key objective is to maintain that elusive equilibrium between regulation and risk management, to effectively enable the social contract responsibility of government while enabling industry to innovate and manage its portion of risk. Arguably, the industry is operating faster, further, more efficiently and reliably than ever before owing to the successful balance between regulatory and risk priorities. The industry embraces a philosophy of continuous improvement and seeks to understand new ways in which to manage new forms of risk and vulnerability and perhaps none more so than cybersecurity in aviation.
Noting the merits of this white paper, significant policy, regulatory and risk-based advances have been achieved for terrestrial-based systems leveraging information technology (IT). As such, IATA’s approach thus far has been to focus on the protection of Operational Technology (OT) associated with the safety of flight. We acknowledge years of successful security-by-design practices led by partner original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Additionally, certification of the airworthiness of systems has enabled advances to date. But as technology is changing, so are the priorities of aviation stakeholders and more work is required to ensure optimal resilience.
