Open Access

ARTICLE

Threat Analysis and Assessment Based on a Collaboration Interface for Manned-Unmanned Teaming Systems

Gaeul Kim¹, Dohoon Kim^2,*

1 Department of Software Safety and Security, Kyonggi University, Suwon-si, Republic of Korea
2 Department of Computer Science, Kyonggi University, Suwon-si, Republic of Korea

* Corresponding Author: Dohoon Kim. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Intelligent Perception, Decision-making and Security Control for Unmanned Systems in Complex Environments)

Computers, Materials & Continua 2026, 88(1), 12 https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2026.078931

Received 10 January 2026; Accepted 25 March 2026; Issue published 08 May 2026

Abstract

Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) is an operational system where manned and unmanned systems perform missions through a collaboration interface, expanding beyond defense into civilian domains. The core of MUM-T lies in the organic interaction between manned and unmanned systems. The Collaboration Interface enabling this interaction becomes a primary target for cyber attacks due to its reliance on wireless networks. Compromising the reliability of the collaboration interface goes beyond simple communication failures; it directly leads to mission failure and aircraft safety issues. Therefore, systematic threat analysis and assessment tailored to this specific domain are essential. This study performs threat modeling based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework for the MUM-T collaboration interface and proposes a behavior-based risk assessment methodology combined with multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques. First, attack techniques reflecting the characteristics of the collaboration interface are derived to structure threat scenarios. The relative importance of each TTP of the scenario is quantified to calculate the overall risk. When applied to GPS and battery spoofing scenarios, the proposed methodology confirmed that by structurally reflecting the likelihood of occurrence and propagation paths of TTP units, it precisely derives the complex threat characteristics of MUM-T environments. By defining collaboration interfaces as the analysis target and presenting a TTP-based threat analysis and quantitative risk assessment methodology, this study provides practical grounds for determining threat-specific response priorities in MUM-T environments.

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Keywords

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