Thread: It's the final countdown!
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juiceme is offline juiceme
2015-05-19 , 07:49
Community Council | Posts: 4,920 | Thanked: 12,867 times | Joined on May 2012 @ Southerrn Finland
#3054
Originally Posted by wicket View Post
Originally Posted by Dave999 View Post
Originally Posted by wicket View Post
That really depends on the architecture of the plane's computer network. This vulnerability could have been avoided by isolating the in-flight entertainment system from the flight control system. In my opinion, the person(s) who thought it would be a good idea to put both systems together is/are way more guilty than the guy who exploited this glaring flaw.

As pichlo mentioned, the article is lacking details so it's not clear how much knowledge or experience this guy has with planes. This means that there is the possibility that he knew exactly what he was doing and therefore never put the safety of anyone at risk. He appears to be collaborating with the F.B.I and he hasn't yet been charged with any crime. This is unusal. His discovery may well prevent future terrorist attacks.

Im pretty sure they are not interconected. so it definitely not plug n play unless he got hold of netbus for airplanes.

Maybe not purposely interconnected but there must have been some sort of physical connection. The hack would not have been possible had they been isolated.

Now there's one thing you are forgetting with this case, and it is the final word, the grease that runs the gears of companies and nations alike; money.

Aerospace companies are under pressure to develop features quickly for the benefit of the market, just like all competitive business. There are 2 important factors determining this; time-to-market and cost-of-production.

There are some systems that need to be ensured to be reliable, like flight OM and others that are not so critical like entertainment systems. A company can save a truckload of money for each physical component that is not included in the plane; it generates savings in cost-of-installation, cost-of-hardware and mostly, the total weight of the plane.

I'd imagine savings are pretty good if you can have less computer units in the plane, run all communication through a shared bus (less heavy cabling) and use system isolation on the protocol level.

The urge to do so must be really irresistible.... If only someone manages to convince the regulators and auditors that it is safe... remember, there is the truckload of money for every single plane sold to be made in the savings...

boom.