Real-time Security Evaluation for Unmanned Aircraft Systems under Data-driven Attacks*

With rapid advances in the fields of the Internet of Things and autonomous systems, the network security of cyber-physical systems(CPS) becomes more and more important. This paper focuses on the real-time security evaluation for unmanned aircraft systems which are cyber-physical systems relying on information communication and control system to achieve autonomous decision making. Our problem formulation is motivated by scenarios involving autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) working continuously under data-driven attacks when in an open, uncertain, and even hostile environment. Firstly, we investigated the state estimation method in CPS integrated with data-driven attacks model, and then proposed a real-time security scoring algorithm to evaluate the security condition of unmanned aircraft systems under different threat patterns, considering the vulnerability of the systems and consequences brought by data attacks. Our simulation in a UAV illustrated the efficiency and reliability of the algorithm.