IBM to Design and Build Cyber Security Analytics System for the FAA

IBM and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have partnered on a Research and Development project to help protect the nation’s civilian aviation system from cyber attacks.

IBM researchers and cyber security experts will design and build a prototype security system capable of scaling to accommodate the FAA’s high-speed networks.

The project will utilize security streaming analytics technologies to continually analyze the massive amounts of data flowing through FAA networks and get fast and accurate insights about possible threats and system compromises.

The prototype system will have customized dashboards giving FAA officials instant visual representations of network workloads, tickets for found malware, and historical trends to facilitate decision making and early action in the event of network anomalies suggesting a possible attack.

“Cyber attacks have become a global pandemic and no system is immune,” said Todd Ramsey, general manager, U.S. Federal, IBM. “Through this collaboration with the FAA, as well as others underway in government and the private sector, we hope to develop comprehensive solutions for protecting the digital and physical infrastructures of critical national networks and enterprise systems.”

The pilot project is part of IBM’s First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) program, which engages scientists from IBM Research with clients to explore and pilot emerging technologies that address real world problems.