Semantic Search over Encrypted Aircraft Communication Data

Abstract

Aircraft constitute complex systems that rely heavily on adequate monitoring and real-time communication with the base station. During aviation and flight operations, di-verse data is gathered from different sources, including the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), Flight Data Recorder (FDR), logbook, passenger data, etc. Cyber-attacks trans- late to significant operational, commercial, and safety risks, given the increased sensitivity of aircraft data. The main problem is the leakage of communication data between Aircraft Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers. The data, mainly audio communication files, are placed openly within data centers on the ground stations, leading to compromising security and privacy. To facilitate the on-demand availability of the data, one may rely on the cloud, but to thwart attacks, the data needs to be encrypted first, giving rise to the problem of searching. This paper presents a novel approach aiming to reduce data breaches in a cyberattack within the aviation sector by introducing a semantic based searchable encryption scheme over the cloud. In this scenario, semantic-based searchable encryption proved extraordinarily successful at the word and the text level. The rigorous security and complexity analysis yield that the proposed solution provides higher levels of security and efficiency and can be used in the aviation sector.