Hacker Demonstrates Ability To Remotely Hijack An Airplane Using A Smartphone

[LiberalArkie]

http://www.cultofandroid.com/25949/hacker-demonstrates-ability-to-remotely-hijack-an-airplane-using-a-smartphone/


You can get some pretty cool gadgets that can be remote controlled by your smartphones and tablets, such as helicopters, cars, and even tanks. But who wants one of those when you can control the real think?

At the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam this week, Hugo Teso, a pilot turned IT technician, demonstrated the ability to remotely hijack an airplane using a smartphone and a radio transmitter.
Thanks to his 12 years of experience as a commercial airline pilot, and 11 years experience in IT, Teso has a good idea how aviation systems work. He explained to attendees at Hack in the Box that two of the most important ones — the Automated Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) — are completely unencrypted and unauthenticated.

Read more at http://www.cultofandroid.com/25949/hacker-demonstrates-ability-to-remotely-hijack-an-airplane-using-a-smartphone/#ODY2YDFYJxMdiIuw.99

[graham4anything]

1. Hackers need to be dealt with harshly, zero tolerance. Theft is theft.Terrorists are terrorists.

If you see something suspicious, report it.

[Phillip McCleod]

2. really? you think hackers need to be dealt with harshly..

..because one of them exposed a security flaw?

yeah it would be much better if we just pretended that there were no security holes at all. that would be much better.

fuck. utterly clueless about the world we live in.

[graham4anything]

4. Plane crashes are not fun and games

They still don't know why that one flight over Long Island crashed

shoulder to air missile
hacker
red laser pointer

everyone died

[Phillip McCleod]

12. you do know what 'hacker' means don't you?

[trumad]

13. LOL---he has no idea what it means.

Too funny.

I am in the network Security business--- a business that would hardly exist without the ability to errrr hack.

[Phillip McCleod]

18. yeh too often ppl think of wargames, ...

Swordfish.. the net .. etc.

Its a synonym for programmer.. 1st & orig. meaning.

[Arctic Dave]

5. Iran agrees with you.

As soon as they find out who created the stuxnet they need to be nuked.

[Katashi_itto]

17. Umm that was us and Israel.

We designed and created it. Israel had the on-ground assets to physically place it since, the Iranian centrifuge system was airgapped. It was a combo effort.

[Arctic Dave]

19. I should have put the sarc tag in.

[Katashi_itto]

20. Doh! my mistake for taking seriously too :)

[KittyWampus]

6. Hackers aren't all one amorphous group. Different agendas & targets.

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. How high up should I aim with my suspicion reports?

Should I file weekly reports or as they come?

Ya know my mailman always makes my dog bark EVERY DAY and I am starting to think my dog is on to something. He is a very smart dog! Should I include his name in my report?

I have so many questions! Maybe you could expound on the topic a bit more.

Cheers!

[sir pball]

9. Uhh, that's exactly what he did

From the linked article, which you clearly didn't read..

Unsurprisingly, Teso hasn’t shared most of the juicy details regarding the tools he uses, because the vulnerabilities they exploit are yet to be fixed. He says, however, that he’s been “pleasantly surprised” by the industry’s reaction to his research and discoveries, which have vowed to aid him in his research.

Also this:

The precise nature of the code flaws wasn't released – for understandable reasons – but Teso says the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Administration have both been informed and are working on fixing the issue.

[LanternWaste]

10. Reads much like a very patriotic Soviet propaganda poster

"need to be dealt with harshly, zero tolerance. Theft is theft.Terrorists are terrorists. If you see something suspicious, report it."

Reads much like a very patriotic Soviet propaganda poster or a passage from Orwell. I can only imagine your premise will be allowed all the consideration it indeed warrants...

[LiberalArkie]

3. The real problem is having critical systems unencrypted. People were able to watch drone video with

very simple equipment because the video was being sent in the clear. Not a very good idea. It is now encrypted.

[KittyWampus]

7. So apparently security for electronic aviation systems isn't that big a deal? They're too cheap

to pay for something so basically essential?

[Blue_Tires]

11. "hijack" is too strong a word

in theory, this guy could feed false info to a plane's automated systems (he'll need *slightly* stronger transmitting power than what his smartphone provides) and hope the pilots are asleep at the yoke, but that's about it...

[trumad]

14. Give the dude a medal...

The more we understand how this type of signal communication works, the more we can help prevent it.

[Blue_Tires]

15. Yeah, I get that it is a definite concern

Because communications tampering has happened in the past...Probably more often than we think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_Mozambican_Tupolev_Tu-134_crash#Landing_clearance_and_crash

[trumad]

16. As noted above...

Network Security is what I do for a living.

If the public only knew what is going on, they'd be a heck of a lot more careful.