The Identity Problem

Information technology has provided the aerospace and air transport industry with wonderful tools for the transmission and sharing of data and services. The time-saving and cost-saving potential is immense; options and services that couldn't even be dreamed of ten years ago are now within reach.

However, not all issues are solved with a touch of the network wand. There are significant roadblocks along the way: who can access a project team's shared documents and files? Who did the email you just received really come from? How do you ensure nobody tampers with the flight-critical upgrade you are sending to a taxiing airplane? How do you guarantee the confidential specifications you just sent to your colleagues halfway around the world won't land in the wrong hands, and land you in legal trouble? We know how to transmit data, but ensuring the right thing happens to it is an entirely different matter. Simple solutions exist on a small scale, but in the air transport and aerospace industry, the scale quickly becomes huge. Things are complicated even further by incompatible technological infrastructures, geographical dispersion and threats such as commercial espionage and random vandalism.

Many technological solutions exist to provide integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation to data and services; most of these make use of cryptographic techniques such as data encryption and signing. However, these solutions usually require the acquisition of specific information about the party being communicated with, and this information must be totally reliable. This is where Identity and Access Management come into play; the solution must offer ways to obtain trustworthy information about a participant in a manner that is controlled, flexible, efficient and transparent.

Once those issues are solved, the door to productivity-enhancing and cost-saving solutions is wide open. A common Identity Management framework based on PKI and Identity Federation provides companies with a way to collaborate and form teams amongst partners, without worrying about leaking intellectual property and risking export control violations; this allows them to reduce costs, shorten project timelines and improve productivity, all while reducing management, setup and travel costs. From the operational side, leveraging Identity Management solutions can allow aircraft to reduce turnaround times and improve fleet efficiency.

Carillon Information Security inc. provides Identity and Access Management consulting services to the air transport and aerospace world. As one of the leaders in the development of Public Key Infrastructure and Identity Federation standards within those communities (through our involvement with the DSWG and TSCP, among other initiatives), we help our clients implement cost-effective solutions to solve their collaboration, intellectual property protection and export control problems.

Recent industry and technology trends, coupled with the pressure of a changing financial landscape and new standards and regulations, are forcing air transport companies to rethink their current authentication and security processes. With more and more emphasis being placed on collaboration, intellectual property protection and export control compliance, Identity and Access management is becoming a critical concern for the industry. Carillon is here to help.