Aviation Security and Risk Mitigation Strategies: An Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive overview of aviation security and risk mitigation strategies, focusing on the Australian context. It begins by outlining the current challenges faced by the aviation industry, including the evolving nature of threats, the impact of terrorism, and the role of cyber security. The report then delves into the present scenario of Australian airports, detailing passenger statistics and the current National Terrorism Threat Level. It analyzes various aviation security threats, such as insider threats and the exploitation of IT vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the report discusses specific incidents and security breaches that have occurred in Australian airports, highlighting the importance of effective screening processes and staff training. The core of the report focuses on aviation security and risk mitigation strategies, including the roles of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Border Force (ABF), and the Australian Crime Commission (ACC). It emphasizes the need for robust control over external and internal quality assurance programs, in-house training, and the implementation of industry security standards to enhance aviation safety. The conclusion summarizes the key findings, emphasizing the need for continuous improvement in security measures, particularly in the cyber domain, to protect the confidentiality of passengers and the aviation sector as a whole.

Running head: AVIATION SECURITY AND RISK MITIGATION STRATEGIES
Aviation Security and Risk Mitigation Strategies
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 The Present Scenario of Australian Airports.........................................................................2
2.2 Current Aviation Security Threats.........................................................................................3
2.3 Aviation Security & Risk Mitigation Strategies....................................................................5
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Introduction
The industry of aviation is faced with many forms of unprecedented challenges that
might range over a dynamic range of topics. In the recent times, Australia is under a major
pressure from the increasing threat scenarios that are affecting the aviation environment. Hence,
the risks and threats over the aviation environment is being constantly evolving as they make use
of complex and sophisticated forms of physical attacks over the aviation and aircraft
infrastructure. Different kinds of security threats are mostly faced by the aviation sector based on
low emphasis over the security standards that are set for the industry (Gillen & Morrison, 2015).
The policies that are put in place needs to be restructured, which would further help in creating a
new dimension and curbing the present security standards.
The following parts of the discussion would put emphasis over the risks and threats that
are being affecting the aviation sector of Australia. Based on the discussed scenario of threats,
each of the risk mitigation actions would also be supported that would help in improving the
present scenario at Australia and thus majorly boost the industry.
2. Discussion
2.1 The Present Scenario of Australian Airports
Australia owns nine designated airports from where most of the aviation functions are
being performed. The focus of the airport officials are majorly based over the security aspects
that should be developed for the airports. In 2015, it had been reported that 60 million passengers
would have travelled on different forms of Australian domestic aviation spaces (Naji et al.,
2019). In this report, it was also discussed that there were 33.9 million overseas travelers in both
arrival and departure for the year 2014-15.

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2.2 Current Aviation Security Threats
The current National Terrorism Threat Level according to the present state of Australia is
probable. This would further mean that groups or individuals have majorly been involved with
the capability and intent for conducting any forms of terrorist attacks within Australia. According
to a report published by the Senate committee, the officials at the airport have indicated over the
fact that the civilian aviation sector would be considered as a major high-value target for the near
future (Sabatini, 2015). Hence, terrorists have majorly adapted to the different changes that are
made on a regular basis over the security measures.
The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) have majorly identified the industry of
aviation as one of the major pathways of performing crime. It has also stated the fact that there
are high chances that criminals would highly infiltrate within the sector based on exploiting
vulnerabilities (Stewart & Mueller, 2015). This is thus also considered as one of the forms of
insider threats over an individual or group.
With the major advancements in the field of Information Technology (IT), the area of
cyber security tends to become one of the increasing concerning areas of the aviation sector of
Australia. The attacks are mostly posed by hacker groups and organizations who majorly target
particular aircraft organizations in order to gain credentials of passengers and other related data.
The attacks are also considered as inexpensive to be carried out (Perry & Hasisi, 2018). Hence,
they can easily target computer systems even at the ground level and also people who would be
on in-flight. The severity of such attacks would majorly lead to increased range of damage and
disruptions.
Four news reports made from different channels focused over the security breaches that
were made at the Australian airports that were further been broadcasted on Seven Network

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between the months July and October in 2014. The different stories were supported by
documents that were extracted from Freedom of Information (FOI) (Ergün, Açıkel & Turhan,
2017). These documents were extracted from airport officials during the term period of January
2012 and April 2014 during the time when unauthorized individuals were accessing the secured
areas within the airport premises.
Some other instances during this year that were reported included instances in which it
was reported that the screening of passengers were not done in a proper manner based on
detection of prohibited objects. The detection of prohibited objects that were found on the
aircraft included tools that included pliers and screwdrivers, knives, box cutters and scissors. The
security breaches also included weapons such as bullets, pepper spray and others (Meuter &
Lacherez, 2016). Some other highlighted issues that were discovered were based on the process
of passenger screening. This also included the use of contractual staff selection process, staff
training and the additional costs incurred for the security screening process.
In December 2016, it was reported by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) that 2355
attack weapons were seized during the year from public bags. These weapons were also
extracted from people across nine major airports in Australia. This number was an increase from
the 2260 weapons, which were discovered during 2015. The AFP had thus reported the fact that
the discovery of attack weapons during the year had proved evidence of the fact that security
screening processes were not effective, which was the major reason behind leading for such a
negligence act.
During the financial year of 2015-16, the AFP reported that 10 people had made
threatening or false statements. Another 8 people had also failed to comply with the given
directions based on airline staff or airport (Valkenburg & Van der Ploeg, 2015). However, 76

5AVIATION SECURITY AND RISK MITIGATION STRATEGIES
people from the aviation sector had also been reported to behave in an offensive manner that also
includes reports about violent behavior.
2.3 Aviation Security & Risk Mitigation Strategies
The above discussed parts focuses over the major forms of security risks and threats that
were faced by the Australian aviation sector. These risks are considered to be highly critical in
nature that were extremely critical towards the sector. In order to reduce the threats and risks
affecting the sector, some of the approachable risk management strategies that could be focused
upon are discussed in the following parts.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) should hold the major responsibility to prevent and
further respond to the incidents of crime based on the occurrence of critical incidents at the major
airport areas. Security officers and workers should also be appointed in such areas for
performing a diverse range of functions (Baker, 2015). These functions would include counter-
terrorism, investigations based on intelligence and community policing.
The Australian Border Force (ABF) should position officers at eight different major
airports. They should also assist different other agencies based on achieving the purpose of
effective management of airport border areas (Klenka, 2019). They would thus focus on prime
targets for determining the areas of organised crime and counter terrorism attacks.
The ACC should also hold responsibility towards defining and developing their plan for
national aviation security. This would be highly critical for airlines and airport operators based
on the purpose of developing an effective plan for airport security. Plans should also include
different approaches for solving threats and risks that would be supported in accordance to
processes, protocols, procedures and organisational structures (Grant & Stewart, 2017). Hence,

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they would be needed for ensuring a qualified training personnel. The airport officials should
also aim towards performing robust control over external and internal quality. Assurance
programmes should also be focused on monitoring over the performance on airport security.
The aviation sector should also focus over the current industry standards that are based on
maintaining an efficient security program. In-house training programs could also be supported
that would lead security experts to understand the specific areas in which hackers would tend to
pose attacks over the airport security networks (Jackson & LaTourrette, 2015). They should thus
also be able to review over the current security based standards that are put in place and
implement measures to improve the security standards.
3. Conclusion
Based on the discussed sections of the report, it can be concluded that there are major
forms of threats and risks that are being faced by the Australian aviation sector. The sector
always remains wide open to different forms of security threats, which are majorly being posed
for attacking the confidentiality factor of customers travelling to various countries. The major
attacks that have been discussed are based on security threats, detection of dangerous weapons
and lack of security policies, which were present in the aviation sector and have attacked the
systems since the last 10 years. Hence, in order to bring in major changes towards the sector and
improve the most specific areas for the sector, there is a major need for improving the systems
and implementing better standards.
Although the aviation players are highly aware about the discovery of security standards
based on the faced vulnerabilities, yet there is a high need of revising the present standards while
defining best practices in dealing with them. The cyber domain is the most vital sector, which

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needs major improvements based on security mechanisms, best encryption standards and best
policies that would be established by the government and other aviation agencies. Hence, based
on the defining and implementation of such standards for improvement in security plans, it
would be beneficial for the aviation sector of Australia.

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References
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Safety & Security. International Journal of Safety and Security in Tourism and
Hospitality, 1(12), 1.
Ergün, N., Açıkel, B. Y., & Turhan, U. (2017). The appropriateness of today’s airport security
measures in safeguarding airline passengers. Security Journal, 30(1), 89-105.
Gillen, D., & Morrison, W. G. (2015). Aviation security: Costing, pricing, finance and
performance. Journal of Air Transport Management, 48, 1-12.
Grant, M. J., & Stewart, M. G. (2017). Benefit of distributed security queuing for reducing risks
associated with improvised explosive device attacks in airport terminals. ASCE-ASME
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part B: Mechanical
Engineering, 3(2), 021003.
Jackson, B. A., & LaTourrette, T. (2015). Assessing the effectiveness of layered security for
protecting the aviation system against adaptive adversaries. Journal of Air Transport
Management, 48, 26-33.
Klenka, M. (2019). Major incidents that shaped aviation security. Journal of Transportation
Security, 12(1-2), 39-56.
Meuter, R. F., & Lacherez, P. F. (2016). When and why threats go undetected: Impacts of event
rate and shift length on threat detection accuracy during airport baggage
screening. Human factors, 58(2), 218-228.

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Naji, M., Braytee, A., Anaissi, A., Sianaki, O. A., & Al-Ani, A. (2019, July). Optimizing the
Waiting Time for Airport Security Screening Using Multiple Queues and Servers.
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with airport security. Terrorism and Political Violence, 1-20.
Sabatini, R. (2015, May). A Roadmap for Future Aviation Research in Australia: Improving
Aviation Safety, Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability. In Conference: First
International Symposium on Sustainable Aviation (ISSA 2015), Istanbul, Turkey.
Stewart, M. G., & Mueller, J. (2015). Responsible policy analysis in aviation security with an
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Valkenburg, G., & Van der Ploeg, I. (2015). Materialities between security and privacy: A
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