Numerical Analysis of Cyberattacks on Unmanned Aerial Systems

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are currently in wide use in many applications, including surveillance, law enforcement, and a variety of military missions. As these systems are unmanned, they cannot be directly monitored, and cyberattacks can jeopardize the mission, the vehicle, and potentially lives and property. Given the potential severity of the consequences of security breaches, it is important to assess the vulnerabilities inherent in cyberphysical systems. This paper presents a method for modeling cyberphysical systems in order to evaluate robustness to cyberattacks. We also establish a metric to quantify attack severity: time till failure. We categorize intents and outcomes for typical attacks and perform numerical simulations to estimate the severity of attack combinations in order to identify critical areas of vulnerability. Our findings can be used to guide strategies for improving the security of UASs and other cyberphysical systems.