NASA Is Working on Blockchain-Based Project for Securing Flight Data
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, commonly known as NASA, is working on a blockchain-based project meant to secure and ensure the privacy of flight data.
According to recent reports, starting on the 1st of January, 2020, the US will implement a flight surveillance system, dubbed as the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, or ADS-B. Apart from providing a couple of benefits to how flight data is recorded and stored, the system will publicly share data related to the identity and position of aircrafts in US air space, including that of military and corporate aircrafts.
The US Department of Defence has referred to military aircraft data as “information that, if disclosed, would reveal vulnerabilities in the DoD critical infrastructure and, if exploited, would likely result in the significant disruption, destruction, or damage of operations, property, or facilities.”
This opens the doors to an array of potential security and privacy threats, which will likely be faced by the military and corporate flight operations. Additionally, the ADS-B system does not address issues such as denial of service, or spoofing.
In an effort to overcome these security issues, Ronald Reisman, a NASA engineer published a research paper outlining how a blockchain-based system backed by smart contracts, could ensure the security and privacy of the relevant flight data. In his paper, the aero-computer engineer mentioned that the prototype named ‘Aviation Blockchain Infrastructure’ (ABI) will work via the Hyperledger Fabric and smart contracts. The prototype would allow the military or corporate entities to control to what extent data associated with their activity is shared publicly. In simple words, the system works as a platform, co-existing with the network, which allows confidential transactions to take place.
According to Reisman, “The design innovation is the use of an open source permissioned blockchain framework to enable aircraft privacy and anonymity while providing a secure and efficient method for communication with Air Traffic Services, Operations Support, or other authorized entities.”
Referring to how the system works, Reisman said “Controlling members define one or more channels to isolate peers into subnets and create private ledgers. Each channel’s ledger is only accessible to its member peer nodes. Client requests are routed to a specified channel to run a smart contract that is deployed on that channel. The results are endorsed and verified, and then updated in that channel’s ledger.”
The system also allows certain data from the same aircraft to be shared, while other types of data are kept confidential. As such, information pertaining to the aircraft type and destination can be shared, whereas its altitude, heading or airspeed can be hidden.