RIYADH: The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has become pivotal to cybersecurity in the aviation industry, a panel of experts noted.
Carissa VanderMey, US Transportation Security Administration’s senior liaison officer and cybersecurity coordinator, described the new technology as “the future” due to its increased ability and speed in detecting threats in real-time.
Speaking on a panel during the Saudi Airport Exhibition, the official outlined instances where adversaries went undetected on financial systems for a period of three years, an issue which she stressed could have been detected through AI implementation.
She said: “I think one of our first indications about cyber was when you had an adversary that was living on one of the financial systems for what, three years and nobody was any wiser. And this is where you're starting to see AI is going to become so valuable because it's going to be able to detect those intrusions.”
“AI and machine learning is where I see the future. It makes me think the automation that we're seeing across the airport across the aviation spectrum is going to be where we see it,” she added.
Massimo Cugusi, international business development manager of general security at Italy’s Forte Secur Group echoed this notion. He highlighted that these technologies are not only a possibility in the future, but are being implemented today.
The executive cited examples of AI-based advanced analytics and real-time threat assessment technology that are already implemented at various airports today.
He said: “What is what we have, at the ground of our vision of security is the holistic vision of security. So security as a whole. Every time we split security into sections and fragments or leeches, we lose control over security as a whole.”
“There are many things that we can do today that are AI-based AI powered. First of all, the threat detection. I think this is something that is doable and has already been implemented successfully across many airports. So I’m talking about advanced analytics. I’m talking about real-time threat assessment because time matters,” he added.
