Weapons systems and cyber security - a challenging union

Abstract

A broad range of weapons systems are in service in forces all over the world. Nowadays, state-of-the-art weapons systems are deployed beside legacy high-value systems that have been used for decades, and will continue to be used for some time. Modern weapons systems can contain hundreds of thousands of chips; each of these chips can be of a sophisticated design, containing billions of transistors, making highly complex systems-of-systems. Elderly weapons systems' service lives are often extended or their performance enhanced due to reduced budget funds or delays in new procurement. Therefore, aged and state-of-the art systems have to function together, not only from a communications prospective, but also from a complete systems integration point of view. Modern Network Centric Warfare scenarios rely upon all of these systems being well integrated and be able to interoperate. This spans an incredibly complex range of sensors, communications systems, and weapons of various ages, opening up countless attack vectors and presenting severe challenges to weapons systems security. The paper analyses the parties involved in today's battlespace, examines the impact of the weapons systems' ages on IT security, and surveys the critical factors for cyber security. Numerous highly dangerous factors are identified and essential necessities and countermeasures are recommended.