All of my life I've believed that Air planes aren't and couldn't be possibly be penetrated. But things seem to be beating out my beliefs according to this Lab Report.
If
they are able to get through with this, according to this research report,
certain hackers have been said to be able to penetrate even through the
Airwaves
As
if flying weren’t already stressful enough — what with the thousands of feet
between you and the ground — a security expert now claims that hackers could
potentially take control of a plane’s avionics equipment by breaking into its
in-flight entertainment and WiFi systems.
According to
Ruben Santamarta, a security consultant with the firm IOActive, the
communications systems that airplanes use to beam in-flight movies and WiFi to
your seat are wide open to attack from hackers with the right amount of
knowledge.
In a conducted interview
with Reuters, Santamarta, who will be presenting his findings at the Black
Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, explained that the
vulnerabilities he uncovered could give a hacker access to functions including
a plane’s navigation and safety systems.
Santamarta
said that he has, so far, only been able to prove that his hacks work in a lab.
Still, he maintains that they could be performed in the real world with
relative ease. Note that!
But,
according to aviation expert, Marisa Garcia, hacking a plane through its
inflight entertainment system is essentially impossible. Garcia, who also
serves as Skift.com’s
aviation editor, said the system’s Santamarta claims to have hacked are data
management systems, not flight controls. That's a sense of great relief!
"They
are encrypted, then encoded. They are useful only to know how the aircraft’s
various components perform in-flight," Garcia explained. "It’s a
jumble of data of value only to the manufacturer of a particular component.
Even airlines can’t make much sense of it, nor do they need to."
Garcia went
on to add that aircraft are not networked like computers, accessing one system
does not give control to the others.
“Though digital
has been entering the skies slowly, it has only done so after critical issues
which could compromise the aircraft have been thoroughly analyzed, tested, and
satisfactorily addressed,” Garcia said.
“It’s not
like anyone in the industry will see this claim from Santamarta and say, ‘Geez!
You can access the flight controls through IFC? (In-Flight Connectivity) Why
didn’t we think of that?’
The makers
of the communications satellites that Santamarta claims are so vulnerable to
attack, have also refuted the researcher’s findings, saying their systems
couldn’t be hacked in the way Santamarta outlined.
Planes
aren’t the only mode of transportation at risk of being hacked, though. Even modern
cars are vulnerable thanks to their built-in Bluetooth and WiFi
connections. In fact, some vehicles can be infiltrated so completely that
hackers can take control of everything
from the radio to the brakes.
Heck,
hackers have been able to take
over even smart toilets. So it wouldn’t exactly be a huge surprise if they
discovered a way to crack a plane’s WiFi.
So what can
you do about such potential security issues? Well, until Santamarta’s research
can be proved, you can go back to worrying about whether you got a window or an
aisle seat. If he’s correct, though, there would need to be a serious
investigation into the safety of these satellite systems.
Above all, PLEASE stay safe & secure!
