SafSec

Integration of Safety and Security certification

The MOD expects that future Avionic systems will employ Advanced Avionics Architectures (AAvA), of which Open Systems Architectures (OSA) and Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) are subsets. It is also expected that these systems may be implemented using COTS.

The concept of Advanced Avionics Architectures has the potential to support the non-functional requirements of scalability, availability, supportability and affordability etc. However, such systems raise new issues in both safety and security. The structuring principle used is virtual partitioning, rather than physical partitioning, which makes it more difficult to argue separation for safety or security reasons. Similarly, the AAvA approach uses the concept of dynamic reconfiguration, which is not addressed within current certification schemes.

With this in mind, the MOD chose Altran Praxis to provide an integrated methodology for safety and security certification for Avionics, particularly IMA. SafSec1 is the project that researched this issue, and produced a methodology. The SafSec methodology can be used to ensure that the assurance provided through safety and security certification is met efficiently with minimum rework to enable IMA to be realised and cost benefit provided.