A survey on unmanned aerial systems cybersecurity

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have recently seen widespread use in both military and civilian applications due to their flexibility and versatility. As embedded systems integrating communications, computing and control, UASs are vulnerable due to the generic components and communication protocols they adopt, resulting in numerous cybersecurity threats. This paper provides a comprehensive review of UAS cybersecurity, focusing on its characteristics and challenges. First, the architecture and communication mechanisms of UASs are analyzed. Then, by comparing UAS with industrial control system (ICS) architectures, the security characteristics and challenges specific to UASs are identified. After that, vulnerabilities, threats, and representative research progress in attack and defense techniques are summarized. Additionally, security challenges are categorized across the full life cycle of UASs to develop threat assessment methods and comprehensive protection strategies. Finally, the current status and future prospects of research on UAS cybersecurity are summarized.