Is Boeing's New Dreamliner Hackable?
Boeing's new 787 may look like most other commercial airliners on the outside, but under the paint, it's a technological marvel. In terms of construction, the thing is lightweight and so more fuel efficient than its predecessors. But the really impressive bits are the computerized ones that keep the thing in the air and pointed in the right direction. The craft has an integrated computer system that can automatically contact Boeing systems and report issues via an airborne Internet connection. This integration, however, has raised some security fears among many experts, resulting in the FAA threatening to ground the plane unless Boeing proves that the ship is hack-proof.
The primary problem in the eyes of the FAA is that the connection that the aircraft uses to talk to the ground is the same that will be used by passengers to provide in-flight wireless Internet access. The fear is that passengers on-board the plane could somehow hack into the 787's control systems and cause the ship to crash.
Boeing is saying that these fears are unfounded, and that the two networks, though connected, are secure. That said, Boeing is planning on adding additional layers of security like firewalls and network hardware and software that restricts the flow of data from one network to another. In development since 2004, the 787 is scheduled to hit the air in November of this year, so Boeing doesn't have that much time to figure it out, and it'd be a real shame if the thing couldn't get airborne not due to a aerodynamic design flaw, but rather because of a security flaw.
From The Register
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