Continuous Biometric Authentication for Authorized Aircraft Personnel: A Proposed Design

Abstract

Today, there is no way to ensure that the personnel working within the cockpit of an aircraft in flight are authorized to be there. The primary goal of this thesis is to propose a hypothetical design for the use of a non- intrusive mechanism on the flight deck of an aircraft to provide continuous or periodic authentication of authorized aircraft personnel. The mechanism should answer questions such as: "Is the person who is flying the plane actually the person who they say they are?" and "Is the correct person in control of the aircraft throughout the whole flight segment?" We will investigate biometrics as a possible security mechanism. In this thesis, various biometric methods are examined and their application in the flight deck is shown. Studies that have been conducted on real biometric devices are examined and their results are reported. Also examined are the current practices and procedures that take place in the flight deck, so that the proposed designs can be understood to not interfere with current activities therein. Two biometric solutions (i.e. proposed designs) to provide continuous or periodic authentication of authorized personnel in the flight deck are introduced. The proposed designs are general and can be used with different types of biometric device(s), and can be extended to include multi-biometrics.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA417373

Entities

People

  • Cassandra M. Carrillo

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Authentication
  • Biometric Security
  • Biometrics
  • Cameras
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Databases
  • Fingerprint Recognition
  • Flight Decks
  • Identification
  • Identification Systems
  • Information Science
  • Medical Personnel
  • Reliability
  • Word Processors

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.