Airborne Crowdsensing Networks: Safe and Secure Aircraft-Based Observations

The potential utility for aircraft-based observations (AbO) is growing rapidly. As airborne systems advance in technology and quantity, a paradigm shift is occurring in which the safety of a system is directly tied to its security. We turn to the world of crowdsourcing to tie emerging security and privacy discussions to AbO in the form of an Airborne Crowdsensing Network (ACN). To analyze the status and future of ACN security, it is useful to interweave current avionics security standards with new offerings from crowdsourcing researchers to ensure the future of big data in the sky is safe, secure, and successful. After correlating the future of AbO to the ACN, this paper does a step-by-step security analysis of each portion of the data chain, focusing on vulnerabilities caused by, and solutions enabled by, the crowdsensing roots of ACNs. We also introduce the challenges of the big data age to avionics systems. The pursuit of safety and security in aviation demand that lessons be learned from similar research in the world of crowd-sensing. This analysis of current contributions must be followed by continued observation of, and participation in, future work involving crowdsensing technology.