Air Traffic Control At Serious Risk of Cyberattacks: Report

Investor's Business Daily ^ | 03/05/2015 | John Merline

[IBD editorial writer]

A common plot device in action movies is for terrorists to seize control of the air traffic control system, so they can crash plans into the ground or into each other.

It's always seemed a bit far-fetched, until this week.

[norwaypinesavage]

"terrorists to seize control of the air traffic control system, so they can crash plans into the ground or into each other"

Airplanes are flown by PILOTS. All the pilots I know are perfectly able to avoid crashing their airplanes into the ground with, or without air traffic control. As for crashing into each other, in a short outage, the odds of mid-air collisions are close to zero. A long outage would not be sustainable.

[ops33]

Hack into the ILS system, lower the Glide Slope by .5 degrees when the weather is bad and an aircraft can fly into the approach lights without even knowing it.

[norwaypinesavage]

The ILS is not air traffic control. I don’t know that ILS ground devices even need to be connected to the internet, though maybe some are now. Pilots also have altimeters, ground proximity warnings and GPS simulated ILS. A good pilot can land without air traffic control, if necessary, even in deteriorated weather. Air traffic control requires a human. Humans are difficult to hack.