By: Thomas Williams
Recently a security analyst and licensed pilot Hugo Teso
says he has developed software that could steal control of an airplane. Teso
says he could hijack an airplane remotely just by using his android phone. He
spoke at The Hack In The Box security summit in Amsterdam, Netherlands where
told everyone in the audience that he spent three years developing a framework
of malevolent code that could be used to attack and manipulate security
software. It is called SIMON and the Andriod app that runs it he calls PlaneSploit.
Hugo Teso showed his capability by using a flight simulator
by changing the speed, altitude and direction of a virtual airplane. He did
this by sending radio signals to its flight management system. The current
security systems used by airports for airplanes do not have the strong enough
verification methods to make sure the radio signals and commands are coming
from a legitimate source.
Everything entailed with navigation on an airplane can be
changed by the radio signals such as the pilot’s display screen and Teso can
control planes just by putting in commands that say “Please Go Here” and it
would override the main pilot with no problem. The Federal Aviation
Administration is aware of Teso but says his hacking techniques do not pose a
threat on real flights beacuse it does not work on certified flight hardware.
In addition, Teso said he developed SIMON in a specified way so that it only
works in virtual environments not an actual aircraft. Nonetheless, it would be
very naïve to overlook this and say that there is no real risk because there
is. Below are three videos.
The world of hacking has grown in almost direct proportion to the traditional world of legitimate technology. Hacking is a sort of para-dimension of technology in which most everything is covert and the efforts range from fun and games to serious governmental offenses. The ability to hack into airplane control systems is an issue of grave concern, but the idea of remotely accessing and then controlling a moving object such as a drone or other device is not new. The military has been doing it for ages. Civilian control of that sort of technology is something that should monitored as it has the potential to incite disaster if place in the wrong hands.
ReplyDeleteThe following link represents a small scale example of hacking into your computer and shutting it down using your smartphone device.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUw_9qbNj_E
This makes you wonder about the safety of many things that involve technology since it can be used in a way that could be dangerous. I think this is a great post. I never would have thought about anything like this unless I heard it through the news or something. It just makes you more aware of the pros and cons of technology. Great Post!
ReplyDelete