Hackers can attack modern aircraft right in the air, experts say in the USA

Hackers can attack modern passenger aircraft right in the air, warned the American Government Agency, examining the electronics of Boeing and Airbus airliners. The report is published on the US Accounts Chamber (Government Accountability Office, GAO).

Experts indicated that the latest liners - the American Boeing 787 Dreamliner and European Airbus A350 and A380, could be most dangerous, CNN reports. According to the report, some electronic elements of the pilots cabin are used to interact the same communications or wireless data transfer by WiFi, which are used by passengers to enter the Internet or games on individual screens.

Representatives of GAO consulted with computer security experts, who indicated that in this case, Aviononic interference is possible from outside. One of the experts surveyed even suggested that the platform for penetration into the liner system can be provided by a virus or worm, which is accidentally downloaded from the aircraft passengers on the Internet.

CNN indicates several potential risk zones: infection or manipulation of on -board computers, control over the security system or navigation system, or simply broadcasting dangerous indications of the pilot.

The GAO report emphasizes that older aircraft are less integrated on the Internet and their control systems are much better isolated, which means the risk of hacking for aircraft "older than 20 years" is less.

Reuters reports that the representative of the Federal Aviation Administration, Michael Wert, who agreed with the GAO conclusions, was invited to the Senate’s report. At the same time, he said that the administration has already attracted experts at the National Security Agency and is working on a list of changes necessary to ensure security.

From the texts of Reuters and CNN it follows that experts did not find specific “holes” in electronic systems, but pointed out the growing danger of the penetration scenario. Pilot John Barton in an interview with CNN shared his fears: "We got hackers in the Pentagon, so I would have to penetrate the computer system of the aircraft." The channel, however, emphasizes that it is unclear from the GAO report whether experts were based on the results of “field” tests or the conclusions are based on theoretical assumptions.

Barton also indicated that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 were originally created with a support for technology, which in the future could allow to intercept the control of the liner from the ground in case of emergency necessity. However, according to him, the practical implementation of this idea is still very far away.

One of the members of the transport committee Peter Defazio told Reuters: “This report revealed a real and serious threat to the cyber attack of the aircraft during the flight. The aviation administration should focus on certification standards that will prevent (actions) of a terrorist with a laptop in a salon or on the ground to intercept the aircraft through the WiFi system used by passengers.”

It should be noted that the German media did not exclude the hacking version in the event of the Germanwings liner disaster, which broke in the Alps. However, then the totality of evidence regarding the second pilot Andreas Lyubits , who apparently intentionally directed the liner to the ground, forced to forget about this hypothesis.

At the time of writing, Boeing did not comment on the contents of the report. Airbus has released a short press release that assures that the company is constantly working on the architecture of its electronic systems in order to ensure the highest degree of reliability and security, but does not intend to discuss the details, as it "can be controversial for security."