Re: @Hans Beeson-Numpsadese
@Ian
>Look, who cares if you can hack the entertainment system. It is a separate system.
The whole point of this article is, the IES is vulnerable, which could allow hackers to cast doubt on the proper functioning of all electronic systems aboard. That can be quite dangerous, especially if pilots stop trusting their flight systems.
The other point is, it is not quite clear that the systems are properly segregated, this is not the first dude to alert us ... sadly, the other got locked up because he foolishly tried to get into the inflight control systems on a flight, iirc.
There are comment@rds here that claim the IES needs access to inflight data (speed/location/destination) so needs access to the avionics domain - I have already said that a simple GPS system in the IES would give it all required data, without the need to get access to the avionics domain. Problem is, this is the more expensive option (you need a separate GPS for the IES) and, of course, a company always wants to cut costs ...
It is always MUCH safer to have white hats test these systems before black hats do ... probably something the aircraft manufacturers need to do ... they have some control over which IES are made available for a type of aircraft.
Sadly, security through obscurity, aka the Microsoft way, is still deeply ingrained in developers, that's why we discover backdoors everywhere, from cars to webcams ....
I find the extent of your faith disturbing ...