Hijacking Airplanes With A Phone: So 3 Years Ago!
Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone is SO three years ago!
Why?
Because this thriller, Die By Wire details an even more effective way to do this. I wrote it more than three years ago. I was published in December 2011.
The following two links will offer more insight into the hack that goes far beyond the relatively simple Android phone exploit:
Modern Fly-By-Wire Aircraft Could Be Die-By-Wire Death Traps
The Prelude To Fictional (And Real-Life) Aircraft Disappearances: Hacking Unencrypted GPS:
True, the Die By Wire hack used a modified laptop, but the conclusion is the same: The fly-by-wire computers in a modern aircraft can be hacked, hijacked and become a real-time version of Flight Simulator for the bad guys.
FAA, OTHERS POINT OUT WEAKNESSES IN ANDROID HACK
I agree with the two articles, below, that the Android hack described this week is way too simple to do the whole job.
In fact, I started with the same logic and looked at the exact two signals more than three years ago when I started my research. I realized then that it could not take control of the entire aircraft. So, I expanded on the concept in order to make 24 Airbuses disappear over the Atlantic. Simultaneously.
In a follow-up article published yesterday in Bloomberg Businessweek, the U.S. Federal Aviation Admnistration said that the Android phone exploit could not, by itself, allow a hacker to hijack an aircraft.
Then The Atlantic Wire ran this piece: No, That German Hacker Probably Can’t Hijack an Airplane with Software .
Both articles are right about the Android hack. But that still leaves the one I created for Die By Wire.
And, yes, some of the very specific details were omitted in the book.
The last time I got really specific about things I developed, the Iranians who took over the American Embassy used them as step-by-step instructions.
Since then, I have blurred a few things. After all, I travel on fly-by, die-by-wire aircraft too, mostly because there’s little choice left.
