With the continuous expansion of air traffic flow, the increasingly serious aviation network security threats have a significant and far-reaching impact on the safe operation of the aviation industry. The networked air traffic management (ATM) system is an integrated space–air–ground network integrating communication, network, satellite, and data chain technology, which adopts a network-centric structure to provide network-enabled services and applications for the air transportation system. In view of the serious network threats faced by networked ATM, this paper studies the basic theories and key technologies of ATM information security assurance and designs a credible security architecture to provide comprehensive and systematic security assurance for networked ATM. Starting from the problems and development trend of ATM security assurance, this paper investigates the dynamic and complex data processing process of ATM system, analyzes the complex interaction between its cyber and physical system, and then constructs the networked ATM cyber–physical fusion system model and threat model. Furthermore, the causal relationship between ATM security threat alert information is mapped into a Bayesian network, and the game model of networked ATM is proposed using Bayesian Nash equilibrium strategy. At last, the information security assurance architecture of networked ATM system based on blockchain technology is formed by establishing a distributed co-trust mechanism and multi-chain storage structure. We expect this paper to bring some inspiration to the related research in academia and aviation so as to provide useful reference for the construction of ATM safety and security system and the development of technology.
For the air traffic management cyber physical system, if an attacker successfully obtains authority or data through a cyber attack, combined with physical attacks, it will cause serious consequences. Game theory can be applied to the strategic interaction between two parties, especially if the two parties have different goals. The offensive and defensive game process of the air traffic management cyber physical system is a non-cooperative and incomplete information dynamic game. The attacker can choose to camouflage the type of attack launched. The attack detection device configured in the system has a certain probability that the attack type can be successfully detected. According to the type of attack detected, the defender updates the posterior belief of the attack type and selects the corresponding protective strategies. According to the game process of offense and defense, a dynamic Bayesian game model of the air traffic management cyber physical system is established, the possible perfect Bayesian Nash equilibrium and its existence conditions are solved, and a complete mathematical model is constructed. The analysis shows that the dynamic Bayesian game model of the air traffic management cyber physical system can help the system defender to quickly obtain an equilibrium strategy and reduce the loss of the system as much as possible.
Satellite networks face escalating cybersecurity threats from evolving attack vectors and systemic complexities. This paper proposes SatGuard, a novel framework integrating a three-dimensional penetration testing methodology and a nonlinear risk assessment mechanism tailored for satellite security. To address limitations of conventional tools in handling satellite-specific vulnerabilities, SatGuard employs large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 and DeepSeek-R1. By leveraging their contextual reasoning and code-generation abilities, SatGuard enables semi-automated vulnerability analysis and exploitation. Validated in a simulated ground station environment, the framework achieved a 73.3% success rate (22/30 attempts) across critical ports, with an average of 5.5 human interactions per test. By bridging AI-driven automation with satellite-specific risk modeling, SatGuard advances cybersecurity for next-generation space infrastructure through scalable, ethically aligned solutions.
With the rapid growth of global air traffic, 4D-flight trajectory prediction (4D-FTP) using deep learning (DL) methods has become essential for applications such as flight delay prediction, fuel consumption analysis, and traffic management. However, the adversarial attacks pose significant security threats to DL-based 4D-FTP systems reliant on automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) sensors. Furthermore, existing vulnerabilities in time series prediction (TSP) models for 4D-FTP remain underexplored due to the lack of effective and stealthy attack methods. To address this gap, we propose the Dynamic Quasi-Hyperbolic Momentum Iterative Attack with Small Perturbation (DQM-Attack). This method leverages quasi-hyperbolic momentum (QHM) and dynamic step sizes to optimize gradient utilization in 4D-FTP models. In addition, attack stealth is enhanced through the Manifold Smooth Module (MSM) and Sparse Smooth Reinforcement Learning (SS-RL). Experimental results demonstrate that DQM-Attack effectively disrupts predictions with minimal perturbations across four state-of-the-art TSP models. This study appears to be the first to address stealthy adversarial attacks on 4D-FTP systems, revealing a critical security vulnerability in air traffic management (ATM).
Satellite networks are essential to global connectivity yet face severe multidimensional cybersecurity threats. This systematic review conducts a holistic analysis of threats across the physical, network, and user layers. We propose the Sat-ATT&CK knowledge matrix to model satellite-specific attack chains. Corresponding defense technologies are organized within the core functions (Protect, Detect, Respond) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework, establishing a structured threat–defense mapping. Furthermore, an exploratory case study on fine-tuning a large language model (SatSec) using the compiled literature corpus is presented. Finally, we identify key challenges and outline the future research directions toward a more resilient and intelligent security paradigm.