When it was discovered that video feeds from U.S. Predator and Reaper unmanned drones were being hacked by insurgents in Iraq, it became evident that cybersecurity has a long way to go to become more secure. The natural reaction is to point the finger at software producers, the government, and the push for functionality over security. But it may be that a different model is needed for the software itself.

When designing or reviewing a system, it is common to ensure that trust is established between end-users and the applications. Trust in this context means that the users are trusted because they have proven their identity, and their authority to access the application has been verified. Many times, trust between system components is overlooked. This can be a deadly sin for software design that can lead to security vulnerabilities.