Navigating the Skies of Advanced Storage Security: Key Storage Protocols and Standards Aerospace Companies Should Be Aware Of

In the dynamic realm of advanced aerospace and engineering technology, safeguarding sensitive data is paramount. Whether designing cutting-edge aircraft or developing revolutionary space exploration technologies, robust advanced storage security protocols are critical. In this guide, we'll explore the importance of choosing storage solutions that meet stringent security standards for aerospace and advanced engineering companies. Additionally, we'll delve into key storage protocols and top technology providers meeting these standards.

The Importance of Stringent Advanced Storage Security Standards for Aerospace and Advanced Engineering Companies

Aerospace and advanced engineering companies operate in highly competitive and regulated environments, where innovation and intellectual property are prized assets. Here's why choosing a storage solution that meets stringent security standards is crucial:

Protection of Intellectual Property: Aerospace and advanced engineering companies invest significant resources in research and development to drive innovation. Intellectual property, including proprietary designs, patents, and trade secrets, must be safeguarded against theft, espionage, or unauthorised access. Choosing a storage solution with robust encryption and access controls ensures that sensitive intellectual property remains confidential and secure.
Regulatory Compliance: Aerospace and advanced engineering industries are subject to strict regulatory requirements, especially when dealing with government contracts or international partnerships. Compliance with industry standards such as FIPS 140-2 and NIST SP 800-171 is essential to meet regulatory obligations and maintain the trust of customers and stakeholders. Selecting a storage solution that adheres to these standards demonstrates a commitment to security and regulatory compliance.
Mitigation of Cyber Threats: The aerospace and advanced engineering sectors are prime targets for cyberattacks due to the high value of their intellectual property and the potential impact of security breaches. Cyber threats, including ransomware, data breaches, and industrial espionage, pose significant risks to companies' operations, reputation, and financial stability. By deploying storage solutions with advanced security features such as encryption, intrusion detection, and threat monitoring, companies can mitigate the risk of cyber threats and protect their critical assets.
Preservation of Data Integrity: Data integrity is paramount in aerospace and advanced engineering applications, where accuracy and reliability are essential. Storage solutions that ensure data integrity through mechanisms such as cryptographic checksums and data validation safeguards against unauthorised modifications or tampering. Maintaining data integrity is critical for engineering simulations, testing, and analysis, where the accuracy of results directly impacts product performance and safety.
Business Continuity and Resilience: Aerospace and advanced engineering companies rely heavily on data for decision-making, project management, and collaboration. Any disruption to data availability or loss of critical information can have severe consequences for project timelines, productivity, and profitability. Choosing storage solutions with built-in redundancy, disaster recovery capabilities, and data replication ensures business continuity and resilience, even in the face of unforeseen events such as hardware failures, natural disasters, or cyber incidents.
Safeguarding Mission-Critical Operations: Imagine the stakes of a satellite launch or a critical flight operation. Protecting advanced storage ensures that mission-critical operations run without interruption. For example, backing up and protecting sensitive flight data is essential for maintaining safety and operational efficiency in the aerospace industry.

Understanding Key Storage Protocols and Standards

Now, let's delve into the key advanced storage security protocols and standards that aerospace and advanced engineering companies should consider:

AES (Advanced Encryption Standard): AES is a benchmark in encryption, offering robust protection. Aerospace and advanced engineering companies can employ AES to encrypt data stored in various mediums, ensuring security against brute-force attacks.
TLS (Transport Layer Security): TLS secures communication channels, mitigating risks of interception and tampering. Implementing TLS is crucial for aerospace and advanced engineering companies transmitting data across networks.
FIPS 140-2 (Federal Information Processing Standards): FIPS 140-2 ensures cryptographic modules meet stringent security standards. Aerospace and advanced engineering companies must adhere to FIPS 140-2-certified solutions for cryptographic operations, safeguarding classified data.
PKI (Public Key Infrastructure): PKI facilitates secure authentication and data exchange, enhancing access control and data protection across aerospace and engineering infrastructure.
NIST SP 800-171: Compliance with NIST SP 800-171 is essential for aerospace and advanced engineering companies handling controlled unclassified information (CUI), ensuring data confidentiality and integrity.
Blockchain Technology: Blockchain provides decentralised data storage and verification, suitable for aerospace and engineering applications requiring immutable records and enhanced data integrity.
FIPS 197 (Advanced Encryption Standard - Rijndael): FIPS 197 defines the AES algorithm, ensuring interoperability and standardised cryptographic techniques for enhanced security.

Top Technology Storage Providers Meeting Advanced Security Standards

advanced-storage-security-aerospace-engineer

With an understanding of the importance of stringent security standards and key storage protocols, aerospace and advanced engineering companies can now explore top technology providers offering solutions that meet these standards. Let's delve into some reputable providers:

IBM: IBM's Spectrum Storage suite offers encryption capabilities and robust access controls, meeting FIPS 140-2 compliance requirements.
IXSystems: IXSystems, renowned for its TrueNAS storage solutions, provides secure storage tailored for aerospace and advanced engineering needs. TrueNAS meets stringent security standards, including FIPS 140-2 compliance, ensuring data protection and regulatory compliance for critical engineering projects.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE): HPE's Nimble Storage platform delivers high performance and data protection features, including FIPS 140-2 validated encryption, ensuring security for aerospace and advanced engineering data.
NetApp: NetApp's storage solutions offer encryption at rest and in transit, meeting advanced security needs. Their ONTAP software supports FIPS 140-2 compliant encryption for effective data protection.

By partnering with these reputable technology storage providers, aerospace and advanced engineering companies can access cutting-edge solutions that meet advanced security standards, ensuring the protection, integrity, and availability of their critical data assets. In an era of rapid technological advancement and evolving cyber threats, investing in robust storage security is not just a choice but a strategic imperative for success and resilience in aerospace and advanced engineering industries.

How AI Will Impact Cyber Attacks and Security

Within cyber security, the integration of Artificial Intelligence is a game-changer, enhancing the ability to detect and respond to threats swiftly and efficiently.

AI's role extends from automating complex processes to identifying patterns in data that may indicate potential security breaches.

The importance of cybersecurity for AI integration cannot be overstated; as AI systems become more integral to business operations, ensuring these systems are secure is paramount to prevent malicious exploits that could compromise sensitive information or disrupt services.

The Dual Nature of AI in Cyber Security

Artificial Intelligence in cyber security embodies a dual nature, serving both as a powerful ally and a potential adversary.

AI significantly bolsters cyber security defences, automating threat detection and response, and providing advanced analytics to predict and mitigate potential breaches. But at the same time, technological advancements empower cyber attackers, enabling them to devise sophisticated threats that can learn and adapt, making detection and prevention increasingly challenging.

This duality underscores the evolving landscape of cyber threats and defences.

Potential Cyber Threats Facilitated by AI

Artificial intelligence represents a shift, possessing a dual nature that both fortifies defences and elevates the sophistication of threats. AI's capability to automate attacks marks a significant evolution in cyber threats, enabling malicious actors to execute large-scale operations with unprecedented speed and efficiency. These automated systems, powered by AI, can swiftly adapt to countermeasures, making them formidable enemies against traditional security protocols.

AI Social Engineering

AI's prowess in mimicking human behavior and communication has revolutionised social engineering tactics.

By leveraging natural language processing and machine learning, AI can craft highly convincing phishing emails and messages that closely mimic legitimate communications, making it increasingly challenging for individuals to discern malicious intent.

This level of sophistication in phishing attacks not only enhances their success rate but also signifies a shift towards more personalised and targeted cyber threats.

Large Scale Data

AI-driven tools can analyse vast datasets to identify potential vulnerabilities and craft attack vectors that are highly tailored to their targets. This capacity for personalised threat creation makes AI an invaluable asset in the arsenal of cybercriminals, necessitating a corresponding leap in the sophistication of cybersecurity defences to mitigate these advanced threats effectively.

The AI Cyber Attacks That Could Impact Your Business

The integration of AI into cyber operations has significantly altered the risk landscape for businesses. This evolution presents both opportunities and challenges in safeguarding digital assets. Traditional cybersecurity approaches, which often rely on predefined rules and historical threat databases, are increasingly inadequate against AI-driven threats. These threats are characterised by their adaptability, speed, and the ability to learn from and circumvent conventional defence mechanisms.

The dynamic nature of AI-driven threats necessitates a reevaluation of cyber security strategies. Businesses must now contend with attacks that can rapidly evolve, using AI to analyse defences and devise new infiltration methods. This constant arms race between threat actors and defenders underscores the need for adaptive, intelligent security solutions that can anticipate and neutralise threats in real-time.

Case studies highlight the tangible impact of AI-driven cyber attacks on businesses. For instance, sophisticated phishing schemes using AI to mimic trusted contacts have led to significant financial losses and data breaches.

AI-powered ransomware attacks have become more targeted, leveraging machine learning to identify and encrypt the most critical business data, thereby increasing the pressure on organisations to pay ransoms.

To navigate this enhanced risk landscape, businesses must invest in advanced AI-driven security tools and adopt a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to cybersecurity. Emphasising continuous monitoring, threat intelligence, and predictive analytics can help in identifying potential vulnerabilities before they are exploited, thereby fortifying defences against the ever-evolving threat posed by malicious AI applications.

Defending Your Business Against AI Cyber Attacks

To effectively defend your business against AI-driven cyber threats, it's important to build a cyber security strategy that leverages AI-powered threat detection and response systems, integrate AI into your cyber security strategies, and enhance training and awareness programs.

AI-Powered Threat Detection and Response Systems: Implementing AI-driven solutions can significantly improve the ability to identify and mitigate threats in real time. These systems analyse vast amounts of data to detect anomalies that may indicate a security breach, enabling quicker and more accurate responses than traditional methods.

Incorporating AI into Cybersecurity Strategies: Integrating AI into cybersecurity frameworks involves not just deploying AI-based tools but also rethinking security protocols and infrastructure to support dynamic and intelligent defence mechanisms. This integration allows businesses to stay ahead of sophisticated cyber threats by continuously learning and adapting to new attack vectors.

Training and Awareness for Recognising AI-Driven Threats: Educating employees about the nature of AI-driven threats and the tactics used by attackers is crucial. Regular training sessions can help in developing a security-conscious culture, enabling staff to recognise and respond to potential threats effectively.

Type of Cyber Threat/Attack	AI Advancement	Defence Mechanism
Phishing Attacks	AI can generate more convincing fake emails by learning from vast datasets.	Implement advanced email filtering that uses AI to detect sophisticated phishing attempts. Conduct phishing simulations & security awareness training to help your users spot phishing emails.
Ransomware	AI algorithms can identify the most critical data for encryption to demand higher ransoms.	Use AI-powered anti-malware tools that adapt to new ransomware signatures.
DDoS Attacks	AI can optimise attack strategies in real-time, targeting the most impactful areas.	Deploy AI-enhanced DDoS mitigation services that dynamically adjust defences.
Insider Threats	AI can mimic legitimate user behavior, making malicious activities harder to detect.	Employ AI-driven user behavior analytics to identify subtle anomalies indicative of insider threats.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)	AI can automate complex attack strategies, continuously adapting to evade detection.	Leverage AI-based continuous monitoring and intrusion detection systems to counter adaptive APT tactics.

How Will AI Cyber Threats Change?

The future of AI-driven cyber threats is poised for significant evolution, with these threats becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect.

As AI technologies advance, so too will the methods employed by cyber criminals, leveraging AI to automate attacks, personalise phishing attempts, and develop malware that can adapt to countermeasures.

Emerging technologies like quantum computing could further impact cybersecurity by potentially breaking traditional encryption methods, necessitating the development of quantum-resistant cryptography.

The integration of AI in cybersecurity strategies will be crucial, requiring continuous innovation and adaptation to stay ahead of threats.

Different Types Of Hackers – And what we can learn from them

(We'll get through this without using an image of someone wearing a hoody)

Historically, we have not advocated our Cyber Security services and how thoroughly we can test your business for cyber weaknesses - and for good reason.

There are so many specialists and professionals who possess the skills to analyse your security vulnerabilities, but what is needed is more customer education around cyber security threats. We believe that educating our customers is the first step in empowering them in the war against cyber crime. In this way, we help you make informed decisions about who you feel would be the best fit to help protect your business.

No doubt you have heard about mass data breaches in top household brand names, and while we will look at some of the most infamous and nefarious breaches, we'd like to highlight the 'types' of hackers on the market (those who stand in broad daylight and those who operate in the underbelly of society).

The types of hacker are often referred to as wearing different coloured ‘hats’, with each one having a different implication for their target. To illustrate, here’s a list of what each 'type' of hacker does, and what that might mean for your business.

Black Hat

The stereotypical ‘hacker’ – the kind you hear about on the news.

Motives: Financial gain.

Aims: To break into your business and steal bank details, money or confidential data. They usually use these stolen resources for their own gain, to sell on to the black market (the Dark Web) or to extort your business.

What That Means for You: Black Hat hackers are at the top of the business risk list. Their methods are varied and range from complex to basic, so they can potentially be protected against. But if their attacks are successful, the results could be devastating for your business and your customers.

White Hat

The polar opposite of the Black Hat - the 'White Knights', if you will

Motives: A desire to help, along with a passion for finding holes in security networks.

Aims: To protect organisations and people and support them in the ongoing battle against cyber threats. A White Hat hacker is someone like us – a company or individual who will help you protect your business. They can help you put effective protections in place, find vulnerabilities and provide solutions to solve them, before other hackers find them. There is even a qualification and organisation specifically for them – the CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) from the EC Council.What That Means for You: A business that is well protected from every angle of attack in the digital world, and ongoing support in case of a breach.

Grey Hat

Out for mischief.

Motives: Personal enjoyment.

Aims: Grey Hat hackers have all the skills of a Black and a White Hat hacker. The difference is, they don’t care about stealing from people, nor do they particularly want to help people. Instead, they like to play with systems and enjoy the challenge of finding gaps, breaking protections and generally just find hacking fun.

What That Means for You: Despite their skill set and the fact that they do break into systems, Grey Hat hackers will rarely do anything harmful. They break into things because they can, and then move on. Grey Hat hackers actually make up the majority of the hacking community, even though it’s the Black Hats most people know about.

Blue Hat

Vengeful and aggressive in every way- but only if you create them.

Motives: Revenge.

Aims: Blue Hat hackers often take existing code for malware and viruses they find online, then modify it to meet their needs. They will use this code to target the business or individual they feel has wronged them and inflict their revenge.

What That Means for You: Generally, only a problem if you’ve made someone very, very angry (check your Twitter feed, TrustPilot and Google reviews!). This could be a customer, supplier or employee – anyone who might be so angry that they want to ‘make you pay’.

Red Hat

The caped crusaders of the cyber world.

Motives: Vigilante justice.

Aims: To put a stop to people they know to be Black Hat hackers. But they are downright scary in how they go about it. They essentially take the Black Hat’s arsenal and turn it back against them. Using malware, DoS attacks, viruses and Trojan Horses to destroy their machines from the inside out. It’s a pretty effective way of stopping them from attacking anyone else

What That Means for You: Nothing really. Red Hat hackers are similar to White Hat ones, in the sense that they are working to put a stop to Black Hat attacks on your business. But you probably won’t know about it.

Green Hat

New hackers honing their craft in the cyber world.

Motives: Learning to be Jedi level hackers.

Aims: Green Hat hackers are all about the learning and experience of hacking. They are new to the world of scripting, coding and hacking in general, so you probably won’t find one attacking. Instead, they join online message boards asking questions of the hacker community, honing their skills.

What That Means for You: Green Hat hackers don’t really represent a threat to businesses. They are still ‘green’, and more interested in learning how to hack than actually doing it.

Script Kiddie

This is something of an odd one out, since it’s neither a hat nor a colour! Be warned, a Script Kiddie can still cause problems, no matter how innocent the name sounds.

lego gremlin — Script Kiddie, just don't call them that.....this type is not to be messed with

Motives: Causing chaos and disruption.

Aims: Script Kiddies have no interest in things as mundane as theft. Or, as it turns out, script. They don’t tend to develop their own software – instead they download existing malware development software and watch videos on how to use it. When they’re confident, they’ll attack. A typical Script Kiddie attack would be a DoS (Denial of Service) or DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service). This basically means they flood an IP address with so much useless traffic that it collapses. Think most retail websites on Black Friday. It causes chaos and prevents anyone else from using the service.

What That Means for You: While they might not present as a direct financial risk, Script Kiddies can be a pain and cause indirect loss of income. They can cause disruption to your business that can damage your reputation or lose you customers, and it can take some time to get everything back online afterwards.

So there you have it.....

While the media might do a good job of making all hackers out to be these malicious people who meet after dark and conspire to steal from innocent businesses, the reality is that there are lots of different kinds of hacker out there. Each have their own motives, skills and plans for your business, but that’s exactly the crucial point - “their” plans for “your” business. No-one should have plans for your business other than you.

So hopefully this article gives you a bit of an insight into the world of hacking in all its different natures. At Haptic Networks, we do offer penetration testing (by our Certified Ethical Hacker) as one of our cyber security services. We don't claim to be experts, but I'm confident we can help your organisation increase awareness and security. If you'd like a free consultation, just ask!

DIY Network Security Testing Checklist

In recent years businesses have been subject to exploitations of their lackluster digital security, and with technology changing and the way we work shifting, companies facing more threats than ever before.

With the frequency of hacking, cyber attacks and digital crime on the up and up, companies need to ensure they are secure from these new risks.

Needless to say, it is the case with any business that when you scale you are even more vulnerable, everytime a new user, application, device or guest is added to your network, you increase your risk.

Businesses of all shapes and sizes can be affected, so everyone needs to consider their network’s security; often this is an afterthought and the vulnerabilities can be addressed to keep this from happening at all.

Understanding the ways you are at risk is a great start to keeping your network secure, this is part of the reason we decided to create a quickfire self-help document to expose these weaknesses.

With all of the aforementioned thoughts and trends in mind, we have created the “DIY Network Security Testing Checklist” to allow you and your organisation to check your network security and to help you identify any weaknesses or potential breach points.

The importance of highlighting the areas within your organisation’s network that are vulnerable is paramount to ensuring a secure network moving forwards into the future.

This Do-It-Yourself Network Security Testing Checklist has been created to help IT professionals assess your network for any potential vulnerabilities, threats or risks.

The aim of this comprehensive list is to help you evaluate your network’s security and allows you to highlight any weak spots proactively, not reactively.

Here at Haptic Networks we have worked with countless clients across the world to ensure they have the most effective solutions tailored to their unique needs, speak to one of our expert team today!

IT Security - 5 Usual Suspects....

We promise to get through this whole piece without throwing in 'that' acronym (you know the one....)

DDoS, Data breach, Ransomware, Malware, Social engineering attacks.

IT security is the topic, without doubt currently at the forefront of every IT leader's mind today. However most companies are still more reactive than proactive.

The single biggest threat to companies today is risk management. The brutal truth is that most IT teams are not trained security experts, and may not even be following a comprehensive security strategy that provides the protective measures for the organisation as a whole.

If you are looking to employ a more comprehensive IT security strategy, here are the 5 top considerations for your IT team, and your company as a whole.

Firewall, Antivirus and Endpoint protection.If these aren't in place already,get in the sea.
Take the time to plan out a complete risk management strategy, this is the blueprint.
Acquire some DDoS protection, this helps you avoid brute force attempts
Obtain the very best threat detection suite you can afford, remember this....

EXPENSIVE = CHEAP CHEAP = EXPENSIVE

5. Take the time to really scrutinise your identity and access management. The ability to manage the process revolves on your Log management.

Let's be frank, there's no such thing as a perfect IT security mousetrap. Everyone is vulnerable, it's not a question of if you get attacked but when. It's all about how easily you "hand over the....keys"