Hackers - On ground in this case, but..... - Curt Lewis

EUROPEAN AVIATION AGENCY WARNS OF AIRCRAFT HACKING

The director of one of Europe's top aviation agencies warned on Thursday that hackers could infiltrate critical systems in an airplane on the ground.

Patrick Ky director of the European Aviation Safety Agency, said a consultant hired by the agency-one who is a commercial pilot as well-exploited vulnerabilities in the ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) used to transmit text messages between planes and ground stations.

Ky said at a press conference that it took the expert five minutes to crack ACARS and a couple of days to access the aircraft control system on the ground.

"For security reasons, I will not tell you how he did it, but I let you judge if the risk is high or low," Ky was quoted in an article published by France's Les Echos.