Hackers Probably Can't Hijack an Airplane with Software
Apr 12, 2013
An alarming dispatch from the Hack In The Box security conference in Amsterdam arrived on Wednesday: a hacker says he's found a way to take over airplane controls . That's probably not true. At least according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) and Honeywell, the maker's of the cockpit software, it's not. The FAA, for one, says, " The described technique cannot engage or control the aircraft's autopilot system using the FMS or prevent a pilot from overriding the autopilot. " The agency assures America that this hack " does not pose a flight safety concern because it does not work on certified flight hardware. " So why did Hugo Teso, the German hacker in question, tell everybody at the conference as well as countless journalists who've latched on to the story that he could take over the software? Well, Teso says he's successfully taken over a plane's controls in a flight...
