Florida International University (FIU)

Securing the Skies: Training for Unmanned Aerial System Security and Resiliency

Small unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) or drones are receiving much attention in different sectors, including public services, emergency responses, and commercial usage, besides their military applications. However, such proliferation of UASs has also increased their attack surfaces, ironically rendering them a potential safety threat to communities if compromised. In particular, these attacks have related to UASs’ communication and software aspects, which has already produced significant research to mitigate such cyber attacks. Furthermore, hardware-based attacks have gained significant attention from the autonomous system community. Attacks on the onboard system of a UAS, spanning from sensors to power electronics, can severely compromise decision-making and trajectory planning processes, flawing the UASs’ missions. Hence, the principal objective of the MEST Center is to educate and train undergraduate students and professionals in conducting thorough investigations of the attack surface and implementing measures to identify
and mitigate potential security vulnerabilities present in the hardware (HW) and firmware/software (FW/SW) utilized within UAS control systems. Additionally, FIU is a historically minority-serving university, one of the largest in the nation, with 61% Hispanic and 13% African-American students. These demographics provide an ideal setting to foster the involvement of under-represented student groups to create a diversified cybersecurity workforce.