Plane safe? Hacker case points to deeper cyber issues

Security researcher Chris Roberts made headlines last month when he was hauled off a plane in New York by the FBI and accused of hacking into flight controls via his underseat entertainment unit. Other security researchers say Roberts has helped draw attention to a wider issue: that the aviation industry has not kept pace with the threat hackers pose to increasingly computer-connected airplanes. Security analysts say hackers probing aircraft systems on the quiet, such as users claiming to have hacked, for example, into cabin food menus, ordering free drinks and meals.

There’s this huge issue staring us in the face. Are you going to shoot the messenger?

Brad Haines, a friend of Roberts and a security researcher focused on aviation

Researchers like Haines have shown that new aircraft positioning communication systems could allow a hacker to remotely give wrong or misleading information to pilots and air traffic controllers. As the aviation industry adopts communication protocols similar to those used on the Internet to connect cockpits, cabins and ground controls, it leaves itself open to the vulnerabilities bedevilling other industries - from finance to oil and gas to medicine.

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