An Overview of Securing ADS-B Messages With Quantum Key Distribution

As the United States prepares for a post-quantum world, industries throughout the country must adapt to the growing safety and security concerns quantum computing brings. Through this research, the authors examine the safety and security issues that arise with the new quantum systems in aerospace. Specifically, the work explores these concerns as it pertains to ADS-B. ADS-B is the standard for aircraft surveillance, and currently has security flaws due to its unencrypted nature. Prior research has been done to fix these flaws, but all proposed encryption schemes require a secure key exchange. The methods proposed in this research offer a solution to this problem, built to withstand the post-quantum world using quantum key distribution methods. This work stands to benefit safety and security throughout the country.