Mobile Network Comparison

Bit of a stupid prank this one, but the reactions on some people’s faces are pretty hilarious. Not quite as hilarious as the complete lack of reactions from the vast majority of people. What do you think you would you do in this situation?

New research suggests that passenger jets could potentially be “hacked” with little more than a mobile phone. The disturbing news comes from security research and former pilot Hugo Teso who works in Mainz, Germany. The exploit shows how a hacker could actually influence the movement of a commercial airliner.

Teso presented his research at the Hack In The Box conference held in Amsterdam, Netherlands this week. His exploit involves the use of a Android smartphone app called PlainSploit which allows him to control the aircraft’s Flight Management Systems.

Modern aeroplanes have two major systems for communicating with other aircraft and with ground-based air traffic controllers:

The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), sends information about each aircraft (identification, current position, altitude, and so on) through an on-board transmitter to air traffic controllers, and allows aircraft equipped with the technology to receive flight, traffic and weather information about other aircraft currently in the air in their vicinity.

The Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), is used to exchange messages between aircraft and air traffic controllers via radio or satellite, as well as to automatically deliver information about each flight phase to the latter.

The problem is that these technologies are old and dated and, as a result, incredibly insecure. Using both together, an attacker can gather information for a aeroplane’s on-board computer and even spoof signals that allow a hacker to affect the behaviour of the aircraft. Teso has developed an entire framework that allows you to control a ‘plane’s Flight Management System – it’s so complete there’s even scope for adding your own custom plug-ins.

Using live flight trackers such as Flightradar24, you can even hack into any aeroplane that is in range of your phone. The app is very advanced and you can dynamically change the aircraft’s course simply by tapping on a location on a map. You can also set conditional filters that will only activate when certain requirements are met. For example, you can wait until an aircraft is in its cruise phase over the ocean or above a certain ASL altitude and the crew are relaxing to activate certain commands. One of the most interesting features is that you can even control the lights and alarms in the aeroplane and the “Be Punkish” command allows a hacker to trigger lots of these at once. There’s even a humorously named “Visit Ground” command which caused the ‘plane to crash.

Don’t worry too much though next time you get on a flight. Each model of plan is different and only some commands will work on each one even though the app and framework does have a way of detecting what’s available. The other thing is that these commands only work when the ‘plane is set to autopilot so the pilots can always get complete control back and then flying using manual analogue control inputs. Most importantly, of course, Teso hasn’t publicly released the mechanism for all the exploits and has been working with the aviation industry to close the security flaws that allow this hack. The framework he developed was purposely restricted to virtual environments and cannot be used on real-life ‘planes.

However, having said that, on more modern digitised aeroplanes, it’s harder to detect the hacking in the first place and it’s uncommon to fly a plane without any automated assistance. And it’s certainly rather terrifying to learn how poor the security is on all these legacy systems. This is especially the case as aviation is an industry that prides itself on the importance of safety and security as well as redundant systems. Luckily, it does seem that manufacturers are keen to work on fixing the holes in their systems.

What do you make of this crazy story? Are you scared that people could control your flight with just a mobile phone? Why do you think that aircraft security is so poor? And do you expect to see more stories similar to this in the future? Let us know your thoughts below.

EE, the UK’s first network to launch 4G superfast services, has announced that they will soon be able to substantially increase the bandwidth available to their customers. They are set to flip the proverbial switch sometime this summer which will massively increase the potential internet speed. The theoretical throughput is in the region of 130 Mbps but in-field tests will probably be able to produce download speeds around 80 Mbps. This is at least a doubling of the current 4G speeds available to UK consumers.

The roll out will initially only happen in ten major cities in Great Britain. The regions to first get the speed upgrade will be Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.

Compared to typical home broadband speeds, the available bandwidth through 4G is massive. If the connections can prove to be reliable and prices drastically fall, mobile internet may soon be a viable alternative to home wired broadband before fibre optic data connections become more popular.

In fact, the 4G speeds EE are set to unleash will be amongst the fastest available anywhere in Europe. Currently Scandinavia leads the way with typical mobile broadband speeds reaching over 20 Mbps. After the change has been made and the dial spun all the way up, mobile data speeds in the UK are promised to be getting closer to those available in pioneering regions such as South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. Currently some of the fastest mobile data connections can be made us of in Japan where speeds in Tokyo can reach about 75 Mbps. Australia is set to get a 4G network capable of speeds up to 150 Mbps when Vodafone finishes testing its new infrastructure in a couple of months.

However, theoretical speeds don’t necessarily mean anything. The way mobile internet works is that the available bandwidth is often shared between several users. This number is known as a contention ratio and means that the real-world results are frequently less awe-inspiring. In the US, 4G speeds are often found to be about 10x slower than potentially possible.

Even so, the upgrade is certainly welcome. And if we do get speeds approaching 80 Mbps it will surely mean that there will be more and more exciting things we can with our mobiles. This amount of bandwidth would help unleash a new range of stunning apps for use when out and about. For example, it should be easily possible to send and receive ultra-crisp HD video in real time between users. This could provide massive benefits in all sort of applications for example in medicine when used by paramedics.

EE recently acquired a large amount more radio spectrum to use for mobile internet in the much-delayed Ofcom auction. It now owns over a third of all the mobile spectrum in the UK and aims to further increase the speed available to its users later on. In fact, the 4G service could soon be reaching speeds of up to 300 Mbps.

However, the problem with the ability to get such fast mobile connections is the price consumers have to pay. EE have already come under fire for overcharging when their 4G plans were first announced. The network had a practical monopoly and asked for a premium price when it launched its 4G service. Here at Mobile Network Comparison, we’ve also been very critical of the tight data limits EE have imposed on their super fast plans. If you can get the speeds they advertise on your phone, it’s very possible to unknowingly blow through your entire monthly allowance in a matter of minutes. More data on 4G plans ends up costing a lot more money.

Because of these high prices, take up of EE’s 4G service hasn’t been as good as expected. In fact, less than 10% of subscribers have taken on the more expensive plans. We suspect that most consumers will be more looking forward to affordable 4G plans for all before they are desperately keen for more and more speed. This is especially true as HD video calls between mobiles will require both users to be able to get high speed connections. And until unlimited mobile data plans are more commonplace, speed isn’t really the biggest issue. If you have a 3GB limit each month, that still the hard limit that affects you most regardless of whether you can use it up at 300 Mbps or 10 Mbps.

What do you think? Are you desperate to get your hands on a 80 Mbps internet connection in your pocket? What do you think you would use these speeds for? And do you think current 4G pricing is fair to customers?