Cyber security threat analysis and modeling of an unmanned aerial vehicle system

Advances in technology for miniature electronic military equipment and systems have led to the emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as the new weapons of war and tools used in various other areas. UAVs can easily be controlled from a remote location. They are being used for critical operations, including offensive, reconnaissance, surveillance and other civilian missions. The need to secure these channels in a UAV system is one of the most important aspects of the security of this system because all information critical to the mission is sent through wireless communication channels. It is well understood that loss of control over these systems to adversaries due to lack of security is a potential threat to national security. In this paper various security threats to a UAV system is analyzed and a cyber-security threat model showing possible attack paths has been proposed. This model will help designers and users of the UAV systems to understand the threat profile of the system so as to allow them to address various system vulnerabilities, identify high priority threats, and select mitigation techniques for these threats.