Formulating a Comprehensive Cybersecurity Framework for Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents a cybersecurity testing strategy specifically designed for uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that is both efficient and comprehensive compared to existing testing methods, along with initiating attack methodologies such as, GPS Spoofing and Denial-of-Service (DoS) on a UAV model to test the effectiveness of our cybersecurity framework. UAVs provide several benefits in today's world. But they are susceptible to many different cybersecurity threats. The goal of the paper is to create a cybersecurity framework catered towards UAVs for users to follow. As widely credited and known for covering all major aspects of cybersecurity, we use NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology) as the leading framework and enhanced each of the five core functions of NIST to fit the exact needs of UAV cybersecurity. This was done through the addition of several other elements from different frameworks such as MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial, Tactics, Techniques, and Common knowledge), ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standardization/ International Electrotechnical Commission) 27001 and CIS (Center for Internet Security). MITRE ATT&CK aims to share a knowledge-based system on how we can approach different tactics and techniques used by adversaries, and how we can mitigate them from occurring in the future. To demonstrate the criticality of a cybersecurity testing strategy, we used an agent-based simulation environment and represented the effects of a cyber-attack on a UAV if safety implementations are manipulated and not secure enough. Representations of a normal UAV operation were given along with additional visuals demonstrating how these attacks can alter the operation of a UAV system’s response times, resulting in an increase in the likelihood of risk and collision.