STM develops cyber security platform for KAAN national aircraft

Adding a new one to its portfolio in defence industry production every day, Turkiye is also taking precautions against cyber attacks targeting its products. Continuing its work on this issue, STM is developing the cyber security platform for the national aircraft KAAN. In this context, STM, which provides support to KAAN in two stages, provides support in platform cyber security, consultancy, and engineering.

Investments are being made in the most critical points where attacks may occur for KAAN's cyber security. In this context, STM ensures the creation of the cyber security architecture, the determination of cyber security risks, and the establishment of cyber security requirements.

STM, which does not only provide support to KAAN in the cyber security leg, also cooperates in the consulting and engineering legs. Studies continue on KAAN's health management system ground activities, operational analysis modelling and simulation, cockpit avionics subsystems, and integrated control panel.

According to the Cyber ??Threat Status Report prepared by STM, attention is drawn to the cyber security of platforms in the defense industry. The report, which emphasises that a significant portion of today's wars now take place in the cyber world, stated that cyber-attacks are frequently carried out to weaken countries' defence capabilities. According to the report, which observed that cyber security attacks on platforms have increased depending on the importance of states' defence strategies, it was determined that, for example, the frequency of cyber attacks on cars in the world increased by 225 percent from 2018 to 2021.

The report noted that platforms in Turkiye should be developed by taking into account cyber security risks, and underlined that UAV and SIHA systems (TOGAN, KARGU, and ALPAGU), surface and submarine platforms, combat unmanned aircraft systems (M?US), national combat aircraft (MMU), M?LGEM, and the Togg domestic automobile are important in this sense.

Cyber ??attacks on sea platforms were also discussed in detail in the report. The report, which stated that the onboard information technology and operational technology systems of a marine platform can be hacked as easily as land-based systems, drew attention to the fact that such security breaches can cause significant damage to the safety and security of ships, ports, marine facilities, and other elements.

The report, which mentioned that attackers can use malicious software to conduct cyberattacks on ships' automatic identification systems, electronic map display and information systems, global positioning systems (GPS), engine rooms, and radars, determined that these attacks can lead to the hijacking of ships, the disabling or misdirection of navigation systems, the interruption of communication, and the destruction and theft of platform data.