Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Hackers Can Access Flight Controls through Entertainment System

Just in time for your Christmas and holiday travel!

12/20/2016 - Eskenzi PR Ltd. - IOActive recently did some research into a flaw in an in-flight entertainment system used by major airlines including Emirates, Virgin and Qatar that could let hackers access a planes' controls.

Commenting on this, Art Swift, president of the not-for-profit prpl Foundation that aims to make the IoT more open, interoperable and secure, said, "Travellers this holiday season will be horrified to hear that in-flight entertainment systems could be used to help hackers gain access to their favourite airline’s flight control system, but the truth is it’s something which prpl has been talking about publicly since the flaw was first disclosed - and it’s not just airplanes that are at risk. Technology plays an important role in getting us from here to there, but without separation of critical aspects within the systems that keep things like critical controls such as steering, braking or heating and cooling that could potentially cause damage apart from less critical aspects like entertainment. Hackers can worm their way around systems and potentially cause real devastation. For this reason, the prpl Foundation has come up with its free "Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Embedded Computing" for developers, manufacturers and engineers that outlines exactly how this security separation is possible."

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