Ottawa, Canada-based CCX Technologies has expanded its cyber security product line to provide a comprehensive solution that delivers onboard network cyber security, safety and defence for business aviation. The solution is available with a choice of three offerings. “We believe our new solution is the first to address inflight cyber security from directly on board the aircraft,” says Chris Bartlett, company president. “Until now, aircraft cyber security, if implemented at all, has been from the ground, making it difficult to know what's really happening inflight. Protecting the network is not a 'once-and-done' activity, which is why we built this product line to perpetually monitor and defend the aircraft's onboard network. The three offerings, Secure, Route and Connect, use our AP-250, configured as aviation's first cyber security-focused router, or as an inline appliance. Comprising cyber security and connectivity services, hardware and technical support for both the cabin and flight deck, they give flight departments a comprehensive and customisable solution.”

Reliance on connectivity, mobile devices and the constant stream of new vulnerabilities increases the number of threat vectors that can lead to the onboard network being compromised. The ability to monitor both the cabin network and flight deck avionics, including data buses like ARINC-429 amongst others, gives the flight department new visibility into the onboard network security. Implementing CCX's Onboard Cybersecurity solution makes it easier to stay ahead of the compliance curve and achieve future aviation authority cyber security guidelines like RTCA DO-326 and ED-202. Proactively monitoring, detecting and acting on cyber threats, these new offerings will continually protect the business jet's onboard network and passenger data as new vulnerabilities emerge.

“All of our offerings, Secure, Route and Connect, come with a choice of cyber security service plans,” Bartlett continues. “We understand flight departments will each have their own security needs which is why we will work with them to evaluate their risk level and help determine their best option. As a baseline, some of the features they all come with include an encrypted link to the ground, threat alerts to designated personnel, vulnerability scanner, access to our proprietary dashboard and recurring updates to custom rulesets.”

Working with the security measures put in place by network providers, CCX offers an additional, more robust defence-in-depth layer against cyberattacks. It supplies end-to-end encryption for both cabin and flight deck, regardless of connection type; satcom, ATG, Wi-Fi or LTE. Once implemented, powerful capabilities like dual advanced firewalls, threat monitoring, recurring ruleset updates, integrated intrusion detection and prevention systems, alerts to designated personnel and customised integration with existing SIEM and SOCs help defend the onboard network. Secure helps establish the aircraft's baseline cyber security posture, Route advances the aircraft's posture and connectivity performance and Connect unifies aircraft connectivity and cyber security services.