B. Hicks

Bio: B. Hicks is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Avionics & Network-centric warfare. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 6 citations.

Transforming avionics architectures to support network centric warfare

Abstract: Network centric warfare was applied to different layers in the military force structure to enable commanders and direct combatants to monopolize information to increase lethality and survivability. The flow of information, the amount, type, and other attributes to be discussed, heavily impact the aviation sector of military operations and acquisition. This work concentrates on the impact of NCW on avionics architectures and provides insight to the changes required of aircraft systems to fully utilize the NCW tenets. The NCW concepts are described along with the properties of information necessary for network centric operations.

Intrusion Detection System for the MIL-STD-1553 Communication Bus

Abstract: MIL-STD-1553 is a military standard that defines the specification of a serial communication bus that has been implemented in military and aerospace avionic platforms for over 40 years. MIL-STD-1553 was designed for a high level of fault tolerance while less attention was paid to cyber security issues. Thus, as indicated in recent studies, it is exposed to various threats. In this article, we suggest enhancing the security of MIL-STD-1553 communication buses by integrating a machine learning-based intrusion detection system (IDS); such an IDS will be capable of detecting cyber attacks in real time. The IDS consists of two modules: 1) a remote terminal (RT) authentication module that detects illegitimately connected components and data transfers and 2) a sequence-based anomaly detection module that detects anomalies in the operation of the system. The IDS showed high detection rates for both normal and abnormal behavior when evaluated in a testbed using real 1553 hardware, as well as a very fast and accurate training process using logs from a real system. The RT authentication module managed to authenticate RTs with +0.99 precision and +0.98 recall; and detect illegitimate component (or a legitimate component that impersonates other components) with +0.98 precision and +0.99 recall. The sequence-based anomaly detection module managed to perfectly detect both normal and abnormal behavior. Moreover, the sequence-based anomaly detection module managed to accurately (i.e., zero false positives) model the normal behavior of a real system in a short period of time ( $\sim$ 22 s).

Applying traditional military principles to cyber warfare

Abstract: Utilizing a variety of resources, the conventions of land warfare will be analyzed for their cyber impact by using the principles designated by the United States Army. The analysis will discuss in detail the factors impacting security of the network enterprise for command and control, the information conduits found in the technological enterprise, and the effects upon the adversary and combatant commander.