A Systematic Literature Review of Zero Trust Architecture for Military UAV Security Systems

Abstract

Over the last couple of years, the application of autonomous systems such as drones has been widely accepted, and these applications are used in the defense, safety, logistics, delivery, and consumer sectors. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) play a major role in contemporary battles by collecting intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and aiding tactical procedures. Although the intricate interlinking of these systems and the high rate of cyber risk pose security challenges, there are ways to overcome them. Traditional security approaches based on border patrols and protective measures are unreliable against advanced and persistent threats. As a result, the Zero Trust (ZT) approach, which operates under the notion that no faith can be taken for granted in the network, is certainly the most appropriate way to deal with this issue. The main purpose of zero trust in UAV security is to reduce the vulnerability of the system to cyber threats. The core of zero trust is based on observing all activities and risks. This approach will help military UAV operators allow only genuine users to access UAV systems, thereby reducing the possibility of illegal access, hacking, and data breaches. This project aims to analyze the applicability of a zero-trust architecture model and machine learning to enhance the security of military drones. This study conducted a systematic review aimed at identifying different aspects of cybersecurity strategies for protecting UAV systems. Furthermore, a zero-trust architecture is presented in this study as an effective prospective solution to the security issues.

Keywords

• Security
• zero trust architecture (ZTA)
• drone
• UAV
• UAV security
• military UAVs