McAfee: Next Airline Hijacking Will Be By Hacker Halfway Around The World

Megalith

Megalith

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In his latest opinion piece, Mr. McAfee advises us about the shortcomings of the TSA and the very real likelihood of having a commercial aircraft downed over the Internet by a hacker sitting comfortably in his living room.

The next airline hijacking will not be caused by someone physically on an airplane, risking their own life. No, it will be done by some kid in Asia bored with Grand Theft Auto and looking for something else exciting to do. We are skating on thin ice as a country. All of our defenses are focused on a direction from which no attack will ever come again. The attack will be a digital attack, and we have zero defenses against it.
 
Megalith said:
The attack will be a digital attack, and we have zero defenses against it.[/I]
Click to expand...

The pilot having physical control over the plane and the ability to override automated systems sounds like a pretty good defense to me. I don't think we will be seeing fully automated commercial airlines for quite some time.

McAfee is an irrelevant idiot who only gets publicity due to his name (a company he hasn't had anything to do with in decades) and the easy click-bait articles that can be made from his obnoxious "opinions".
 
A show i was watching years ago, someone from some agency had said the U.S is weakest on the digital front, and yet all of their systems rely on it.

Why spend billions in hardware when you can just use the weakest of humans to get access to the systems.
 
I think that we have to assume that one day a deadly remote terror attack will happen. Of course planes are a nice target for these types of attacks but I think there are better and more effective types of attacks that could be done remotely.
 
*sigh* people who manage buggy software shouldn't assert the same mindset onto other industries.

If he had any idea what it took to write DAL-A software (and the fact that only vhdl,verilog,ada,C are really used...) and then get it through DO178 approval he would suddenly realise it isn't as clear cut as a shoddy desktop software...

The vast majority of aircraft in circulation all have closed databuses connecting the pilots commands to the airframe... (CAN, ARINC428...) with no knowledge of TCP/IP...

The exception is the B787 & A350 with their AFDX type networking BUT even then DAL-A equipment is on its own closed network...

So no... some bedroom hacker won't be able to gain remote control. IF/WHEN the FAA/EASA demand remote control to facilitate landing then we can talk
 
Yeah, and it's not like McAfee isn't trying to push his product by giving us the doom and gloom of everything else.
 
So I guess what he says is for the next 911 they can put the blame on an american sitting in his basement. Now we see why this "would" be an adoptable tech by tsa and the gov.
 
naib said:
*sigh* people who manage buggy software shouldn't assert the same mindset onto other industries.

If he had any idea what it took to write DAL-A software (and the fact that only vhdl,verilog,ada,C are really used...) and then get it through DO178 approval he would suddenly realise it isn't as clear cut as a shoddy desktop software...

The vast majority of aircraft in circulation all have closed databuses connecting the pilots commands to the airframe... (CAN, ARINC428...) with no knowledge of TCP/IP...

The exception is the B787 & A350 with their AFDX type networking BUT even then DAL-A equipment is on its own closed network...

So no... some bedroom hacker won't be able to gain remote control. IF/WHEN the FAA/EASA demand remote control to facilitate landing then we can talk
Click to expand...


Yeah, I'm assuming Boeing/Airbus could find no viable reason to put the fly-by-wire systems on the same network as say the WiFi. That'd be just ridiculously stupid.
 
This is how every hijack has been done for 20 years. And no it's not a dude in his basement or idiots with box cutters.
 
Isn't John Mcaffe wanted for murder or something? He's like the rambling hobo of the tech world.
 
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