"Airliners", meet "hackers"...

[3WE]

There appears to be some aviation related hacking on or about 4/22/2014???

[Evan]

with the exception of he last 2 sentences of your quoted article.....

Forbes writes:

Seven years ago, it emerged the flight control and infotainment networks on Boeing 787 aircraft were connected, with only a firewall blocking malicious traffic between the two.

Really? Emerged where? That citation link tied to 'it emerged' leads to a blog called "Stephan's Ramblings". Stephan is "the Information Security Manager at LSE and enjoys discussing information security-related topics."

He tells us "there were a number of stories floating around" suggesting that Boeing had used only a firewall to separate the avionics from the passenger entertainment and LAN. He, in turn, links us to Bruce Schnieder, a 'security guru', who tells us that he finds reports of interlinked systems on the 787 "pretty sensational" and goes on to say:

But, honestly, this isn't nearly enough information to work with. Normally, the aviation industry is really good about this sort of thing, and it doesn't make sense that they'd do something as risky as this. I'd like more definitive information.
EDITED TO ADD (1/16): Seems like there's more hype than story here. Still, it's worth paying attention to.

So he also lacks definitive information. In other words. thus far we have a case of the media eating itself with no fact-checking ability.

Going back to 'Stephens Ramblings' you see he has posted a link to a WIRED magazine article speculating on the issue. They interview a Boeing spokesperson who told them this:

Boeing spokeswoman Lori Gunter said the wording of the FAA document is misleading, and that the plane's networks don't completely connect.
Gunter wouldn't go into detail about how Boeing is tackling the issue but says it is employing a combination of solutions that involves some physical separation of the networks, known as "air gaps," and software firewalls. Gunter also mentioned other technical solutions, which she said are proprietary and didn't want to discuss in public.

Now, you can't hack across an air gap folks.

WIRED also interviewed Mark Loveless, a network security analyst with Autonomic Networks, a company in stealth mode, who presented a conference talk last year on Hacking the Friendly Skies. He says, "So I hope they [Boeing] are really thinking about how to get this right."

I'm guessing, since they are the world's leading aerospace company, that they are "really thinking" about things.

[brianw999]

.....and I'm guessing that this whole idea of hacking aircraft systems is a FLOB.

LOB = Load Of Bollocks. I'll leave you to guess the meaning of the F

[TeeVee]

.....and I'm guessing that this whole idea of hacking aircraft systems is a FLOB.

LOB = Load Of Bollocks. I'll leave you to guess the meaning of the F

F = fair?

[MCM]

Fulsome?

[3WE]

I dunno...put some little nefarious .exe file in the USB when you are uploading the latest R-NAV approach and departure procedures with all the little tweaks on the fixes into the navigation database and wa-lah!

(Or do you do the download over a wireless network at the gate?)



(No, it doesn't fit the cute narrative of the hack from your i-phone from seat 28C, but...)