Cyber threats against civil aviation
Following the inclusion in the Legal Committee’s work programme of the item “consideration of the adequacy of existing international air law instruments in addressing cyber threats against civil aviation”, LEB participated at the first meeting of the Secretariat Study Group on Cybersecurity (SSGC) — Research Subgroup on Legal Aspects (RSGLEG) on 22 November 2018 and assisted the RSGLEG to develop its scope of work, conduct a preliminary analysis of replies from 61 States and territories responding to a survey on applicable domestic legal provisions on cybersecurity and agree on a methodology to conduct further analysis of the responses. LEB also presented the air law treaties applicable to cyberattacks against civil aviation, with the conclusion that the ratification of the 2010 Beijing Convention is a step forward in creating an appropriate legal framework to address cyber threats. The RSGLEG agreed to continue to study whether and in what form, new international instruments to address cybersecurity need to be developed and to refer its conclusions to the Legal Committee. The SSGC, subsequently at its fifth meeting held on 23 November 2018, agreed to include actions on legislation and regulations and work to promote the ratification of the Beijing instruments as part of the Cybersecurity Strategy.
