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goalieskates
Premium Member
join:2004-09-12
land of big

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goalieskates

Premium Member

May be a bigger problem than loud talkers ...

Airplanes can be hacked through wireless in-flight entertainment system (Hacker News)
quote:
Almost a year ago, at the ‘Hack In The Box’ security summit in Amsterdam, a security researcher at N.Runs and a commercial airline pilot, Hugo Teso presented a demonstration that it's possible to take control of aircraft flight systems and communications using an Android smartphone and some specialized attack code.

Quite similar to the previous one, a security researcher claims to have devised a method that can give cyber criminals access to the satellite communications equipment on passenger jets through their WiFi and in-flight entertainment systems.
Just because phones don't interfere with navigation in one aspect doesn't mean they can't be used in another. You have to consider the security of the whole ecosystem, not just one tiny piece of it. From the article, it's clear many vendors didn't.
gaforces (banned)
United We Stand, Divided We Fall
join:2002-04-07
Santa Cruz, CA

gaforces (banned)

Member

Will a paltry amount of money influence the airlines decision to make the planes even more vulnerable?
It looks like it has, if someone sitting with a laptop can hack the planes because of it.
ptb42
join:2002-09-30
USA

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That article has blown the claims way out of proportion. If you follow the link, you'll find that one person has found he can intercept and block/spoof the ACARS or ADS-B datalinks. Since it's RF, I don't doubt that. But, I seriously doubt he could take control of aircraft systems, unless the FMS (Flight Management System) interfaced with the datalinks has a serious bug in it. Otherwise, the pilots will ultimately decide whether to accept the information they receive.

Another person claims they can exploit the satellite communication system used by the entertainment system and/or WiFi. But, these aren't the same systems used by the pilots. And even if they were, the worst he could do is block or spoof the information being received.

Pilots are trained to recognize compromised communication systems, and they have procedures to handle them -- including a total outage. And while spoofing can create an unsafe situation, it would be only temporary: conflicting instructions would be recognized and backup procedures would be instituted.
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

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That article is bullshit. Sure I can design a usb dongle for a Andoird phone that will spoof GPS signals, and spoof satellite phones, and spoof a cell network.

»www.wired.com/images_blo ··· ower.png

Heck, I can carry an aviation frequency 2-way radio in my carry on and fake ATC talk with the pilot of the plane I am sitting on.

What do you really think is on a »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC-135 ? Pacman arcade games?

If you are going to custom engineer attack electronics, just take an ATC freq jammer onto your plane, or buy a MANPAD and shoot the plane down yourself without kill yourself.