Turn off those Flashing Lights

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Hacking Poses Real Danger to Aircrafts, warns expert.

Flaws in in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems and satellite communications leave commercial, private, and military planes vulnerable to hacking, according to cybersecurity expert and founder of OneWorldLabs, Chris Roberts. “We can still take planes out of the sky thanks to the flaws in the in-flight entertainment systems,” said Roberts. “Simply put, we can theorize on how to turn the engines off at 35,000 feet and not have any of those damn flashing lights go off in the cockpit.”

Terrorist groups are believed to lack the expertise to bring down a plane through remote control, but it is only their limitations, not aviation safeguards, that are keeping planes from being hacked.

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According to HomeLand Security News Wire , IFE vulnerabilities exist on both the Panasonic and Thales installations, the two main providers of IFEs. The systems can be breached by remote control and once in, a hacker can gain access into other areas of the plane’s network.

“The worst case would likely be the ability to access the avionics systems, monitor and possibly influence the control interfaces and other critical flight environments typically found on the private plane subnet,” giving the hacker the ability “to intercept and possibly modify the packets of data being sent from the controls to the actuators, using readily available software,” Roberts warned.