Las Vegas which hosted Def Con witnessed some of the innovations at the Aviation Village which also allowed white hackers to test their skills on airplane electronic devices and controls.
A security consultant named Ken Munro working for Pen Test Partners said that the aviation industry has become super vulnerable to cyber threats as hackers are finding ways to hack into airplanes and play with lives for politics.
Munro who himself is a pilot strategized a plan to hack into an F-45 fighter’s jet simulator brought by the US Air Force and US Department of Defense Digital Service. The team succeeded in infiltrating the data gathering repository of the Aircraft which contains info transmitted from the jet’s video cameras and sensors.
Thus, by invading into the control board, the security experts proved their point that companies offering products to the Aviation industry should better start thinking of improving their defense-line when it comes to Cybersecurity.
As big international manufactures presence like Airbus and Boeing was unfelt at the conference, the hacking drama took some time to unfold in the media.
The Aviation Village’s debut also witnessed the disclosure of a big vulnerability of Boeing 787 airplane which was also disclosed by a black hat researcher from the United States last month. It was related to a security flaw that allowed remote hackers to take control of Boeing 787 to reach sensitive avionics network control which relays crucial data to the cabin crew.
Nevada based Def Con which happens to be the world’s largest hacking convention also witnessed a lot of standoffs between the hackers and automakers at the Car hacking village.
Toyota stood tall amongst them by releasing a car hacking tool of its own named PASTA- Portable Automobile Security Testbed; a software which has included qualities of the one disbursed by Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek in 2013 who hacked and took control of the power steering, braking, acceleration and engine functions in Ford Prius and Ford Escape respectively.
On an overall note, the 2019 Hacking conference witnessed several vulnerabilities portrayed by hackers in automobiles, medical devices, and industrial control systems.
But the Aviation industry and the vendors occupied most attention from hackers and the media. And that’s because most of the manufacturers were acting busy on innovating enthralling functions in airplanes by obscuring Cybersecurity and public security.
