Did that title wake you up yet?
From RT.com:
‘Catastrophic disaster’: Aircraft hack only matter of time, US agencies warn
by Benoit Tessier, Reuters
It is “only a matter of time” until a commercial aircraft is hacked, the Department of Homeland Security and other US government agencies have warned. Most planes lack cybersecurity protections to prevent such a hack.
Motherboard obtained internal DHS documents through a Freedom of Information Act request which detail vulnerabilities with commercial aircraft and risk assessments. A number of the documents are still being “withheld pursuant to exemption”of the FOIA.
The release includes a January presentation from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), part of the Department of Energy, outlining the group’s efforts to hack an aircraft via its wifi service as a security test.
If that doesn’t send a chill up your spine as a potential commercial airline passenger, then prepare for another chill. It has already occurred.
From the UKSun.com in November of 2017:
Boeing 757 controls HACKED remotely while on the runway, officials reveal
by Margi Murphy
The passenger jet failed a security test when a group of experts managed to take over its flight controls
Robert Hickey, a US Homeland Security cyber sleuth, managed to take over the commercial passenger aircraft at Atlantic City airport in New Jersey.
The plane was hacked in 2016 but Hickey revealed the chilling details during his speech at the CyberSat Summit this week, Avionics reported.
He said: “We got the aeroplane on September 19, 2016.
“Two days later, I was successful in accomplishing a remote, non-cooperative, penetration.”
Hickey said the details of the hack were classified but they used a combination of radio frequency communications to break in.
But wait. It gets better.
“[Which] means I didn’t have anybody touching the aeroplane, I didn’t have an insider threat.
“I stood off using typical stuff that could get through security and we were able to establish a presence on the systems of the aircraft,” he added.
Hickey said that following testing, experts advised that “it was no big deal”.
But in March 2017 he was shocked to learn that seven airline pilot captains from American Airlines and Delta Air Lines had no idea that their aircraft could be hacked.
From Fox and Friends.
That was theoretical, and on the ground. The following is reality and has already occurred in the air.
Which buttresses what I’ve said for a few years now: if it’s digital, no matter the alleged “security,” it can be hacked. I also say that, in 20, 30, 40 years or so the entire planet is going to rue the day it “went digital.” If it survives, that is.
BZ
