Gunairity: The Power of An Accurate Information

Imagine you're walking on the street, and someone says, "Give me your money right now; I have a gun." Knowing whether it is or not, a toy gun changes the game completely. The evolution of Artificial Intelligence and hardware systems, together with its use in airspace technology and the gun chronicle, led us to create a new ‘poetically licensed’ term: gunairity. It means that today, accurate information and its protective control may be more powerful than the best weapons available in the defense technology field.

Alan Turing was one of the most important people to show the power of information after helping decrypt Enigma messages, which led to the end of World War II in 1945. Since then, cybersecurity has faced a continuous and ever-faster evolution. But in the last years, the world has undergone a major digital transformation with increased interconnectivity and dependency, which has resulted in a rise in cyber threats and security breaches. Consequently, controlling and protecting information has become as important as having a well-structured Air Force.

In terms of technology, some companies, such as KPMG, have continuously improved their capabilities to close the gaps in the A&D sector since 'military hardware and commercial aircraft both hold a high level of lethality.’ Thales, a French multinational group, monitors threats using Thales Cyber Threat Intelligence, which ranks threats by targeted areas, attack origin, targeted sectors, and top malware. Investments are the result of some studies carried out by supporting organizations such as Eurocontrol. Its EATM-CERT reports have shown, from IATA datasets, that fraudulent websites impersonating airlines have caused almost 1 billion US Dollars of negative financial impact per year.

‘The evolution of artificial intelligence and hardware systems together with its use in airspace technology and the gun chronicle led us to create a new ‘poetically licensed’ term: gunairity.’

Latest releases in the field of Artificial Intelligence and continuous progress in quantum computing technology added a new ingredient to the A&D sector container: the need for complete but accurate information. Recently, well-trained systems have caused concerns about AI's ability to lie, misrepresent information, and make incorrect decisions (purposeful or not). This ability could, for instance, enable hackers to hack a system and cause accidents, financial crises, or even a new war.

Agencies and governments are making efforts to better understand this new scenario and fast digital transformation. EASA Artificial Intelligence Roadmap 2.0 outlines the Agency's vision for the safety and ethical considerations of AI in aviation. FAA has also proposed the National Aviation Research Plan (NARP) from 2024 to 2028, which will result in both the use of AI to create new tools and techniques/technologies and analyses information to assist the FAA in developing policy, guidance, and training on the assessment of AI/Machine Learning assurance technologies and risk-mitigation of AI/ML implementations in airborne systems.

For now, our new term, gunairity, maybe a simple way to resume the importance of accurate information nowadays: to know if we have a true gun is better than only having a gun in the scenario of A&D security.