# Cyber-Security Challenges in Aviation Industry: A Review of Current and Future Trends
## 2 A Systematic Literature Review
### Threat Actors and Their Motivations  
Fireeye Incorporated [18] reported their findings on the major threat actors in the aerospace industry and the motives behind their attacks. The main finding of the assessment was that the most prevalent industry cyber threats arise from Advance Persistent Threat (APT) groups that work in collaboration with state actors to acquire intellectual property and intelligence in order to advance their domestic aerospace capabilities as well as to monitor, infiltrate and subvert other sovereign nations' capabilities. APTs were executed by cyber-espionage groups that specialise in targeting information and security assets of critical economic importance to nations and large corporations [19]. These groups are highly skilled, very knowledgeable, and experienced in carrying out malicious acts with high degrees of expertise in masking their attack paths, a mix of characteristics that render them elusive, high-profile and able to inflict significant damage. Evidence was provided that some groups operating in partnership with particular state actors, use the stolen assets to develop cyber-security countermeasures as well as technologies and tools for sale on the dark web. According to Fireeye's threat intelligence system, at least 24 APT incidents were identified that compromised different aerospace organisations with stolen data types ranging from budget information, business communications, equipment maintenance records and specifications. Other data include organisational charts and company directories, personally identifiable information, product designs, product blueprints, production processes and proprietary product or service information, research reports, safety procedures, system log files and testing results and reports, potentially enabling a spectrum of damaging consequences.  
[PERSON] and [PERSON] [20] categorised the threat actors according to their motivations: cyber-criminals, whose activities are responsible for 450 billion dollars of annual loss to the global economy; cyber-activists/hacktivists whose concern is the philosophy, politics and non-monetary goals of the discipline; cyber-spies, motivated by financial, industrial, political and diplomatic espionage; and cyber-terrorists, driven by political, religious, ideological or social violence. Attackers supported by a nation-state in order to advance the latter's strategic goals are classified as cyber-warriors. [PERSON] [21] notes that threat actors are motivated by the ability to cause business disruption and theft of information for political as well as financial gains.  
Recent reports reinforce the likelihood of a significant rise in cyber-threats as the volume of global passengers rises, with embedded systems being deployed in response in order to sustain the quality of services. The integration of hardware and software to increase the efficiency of operations through increased levels of automation presents a more extensive attack surface, stimulating further, the motivation of threat actors. It is therefore timely to accentuate the significant challenges facing the civil aviation industry in the provision of cyber-security as the number and classes of cyber-threats proliferate. The growing degree of threat should be addressed as a matter of urgency through research and innovation in proactive approaches within cyber-security by design tools that mitigate the risks and dissuade malicious activity.