https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/11/14/us-air-force-moves-to-fortify-f-35-weak-points-against-hacking/
By Sebastian Sprenger
DefenseNews
November 14, 2018
BERLIN -- The U.S. Air Force is devoting fresh energy to plugging
cybersecurity holes in the F-35's external support systems, as they are
deemed the easiest entry points for hackers into the fifth-generation
combat jet, according to a key service official.
"It's a software-based aircraft, and any software-based platform is going
to be susceptible to hacking," Brig. Gen. Stephen Jost, director of the
Air Force F-35 Integration Office, told Defense News in an interview at
the International Fighter industry conference here.
The service considers the information backbone of the actual airplane --
managed by manufacturer Lockheed Martin -- relatively safe. That is thanks
to what Jost called "multilayer security protections" ranging from secure
authentication when crafting mission data packages for each aircraft
before takeoff, to pilots punching in personal identification numbers to
start up the plane.
The confidence wanes "as you get further from the air vehicle," Jost said.
When taking into account systems like the Autonomic Logistics Information
System or the Joint Reprogramming Environment, there are "a lot of nodes
of vulnerability that we're trying to shore up," he added.
[...]
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