FAA Issues Conditions for 787 Network Security

FAA has issued final special conditions for network security on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to protect against unauthorized access to critical systems. In certifying the 787 to Part 25 for transport-category aircraft, FAA determined that existing airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate safety standards due to “novel or unusual design features” of the new generation aircraft. Those features are associated with the 787’s digital systems architecture, consisting of flight control, airline business and passenger entertainment networks connected by electronics and embedded software. A notice of proposed special conditions for data network protection and isolation was published for comment last April. According to a Jan. 2 notice in the Federal Register, the 787-8 design “shall prevent all inadvertent or malicious changes to, and all adverse impacts up on, all systems, networks, hardware, software, and data in the Aircraft Control Domain and in the Airline Information Domain from all points within the Passenger Information and Entertainment Domain.”