# Smart Airport Cybersecurity: Threat Mitigation and Cyber Resilience Controls +
## 1 Introduction  
Airport operations and business models have evolved dramatically over the last decades to support the explosive growth of the global aviation industry [1]. Regulatory reform in the new air travelling era produced dramatic traffic growth, diversity and choice for airline passengers. As airlines refine their operating models to align growth to efficiency, airports evolve in parallel to create massive networks of hubs and intelligent systems, which together create an efficient air transportation ecosystem [2]. Since airports are considered a gateway to the world for travelers and business, they are of great importance for country development and economic growth [3]. This article is an extended version of an earlier conference paper with title: \"Implementing Cyber-Security Measures in Airports to Improve Cyber-Resilience\" [4].  
In the USA, aviation and airports, as a transportation subsector, constitute a critical infrastructure and key resource sector, according to the U.S Homeland Security Presidential Directive [5]. The same applies in Europe, where critical infrastructures and essential services in air transport facilities should be adequately protected according to NIS (Network and Information Systems) directive, EPCIP(European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection) and European Community EC/216/2008 regulation [6; 7; 8].  
Securing smart airports and staying ahead of evolving cyber threats is a shared responsibility, involving airlines, airports, vendors and regulators [7]. Identification of cyber-threats challenges, risk assessment approaches and guidelines to enhance cyber security are priorities currently researched by the aviation industry. This article extends previous work [4] aiming to identify cybersecurity policies in airports operating intelligent services, while taking stock of measures and good practices already implemented.  
In this work, malicious cyber-threats that may influence the operational efficiency of smart airports, when equipped with IoT applications, are developed and analyzed. We present an overview of malicious risks that can affect essential services in airports and interconnected networks. We also illustrate a series of analytical malicious attacks scenarios in critical airport's infrastructures, along with mitigation strategies and resilience measures. The contributions of this paper are the following: (i) a research analysis of measures and best practices currently implemented to commercial airports, analyzed based on online survey data; (ii) a detailed identification of malicious threats for IoT applications in smart airports; (iii) scenario analysis of malicious attacks in smart airports assets, including cascading effects, mitigation actions and cyber-resilience measures.  
The remainder of this article is structured as follows: Section 2 describes research methodology, while theoretical framework is presented in Section 3, including airports' classification based on their technological evolution. Online survey and research results are analyzed in Section 4. Malicious threats analysis and detailed attack scenarios are presented in Section 5. Malicious attacks motives are also discussed and attributed to each attack scenario. Finally, in Section 6 research conclusions are presented.