Quote:
Satellites can be hacked, missiles can be hacked, cars can be hacked, ATMs can be hacked. ANYTHING computer based can be hacked.
Not strictly true at all. I have a fairly old car. It has an engine management computer. It cannot be hacked. Why not? It has NO external interface, except for a single WIRED connector. It cannot be reprogrammed through this connector. The only way to re-program it is to replace the internal EPROM with another. Sure there are NEWER engine management computers in newer cars, that have DIFFERENT architectures, that may not be so robust...
My point is it is NOT true that ANYTHING with a computer in it can be hacked. Only systems with open interfaces can. Some of the most unhackable computers are old MS-DOS machines (remember 386 CPUs. eh!), with NO Ethernet or similar network interface. Hack that.
I've worked with the T7 avionics....
Yes you are right you cannot reprogam an eprom without removing it because you have to UV erase it, and the eprom essentially is the computer in a simple bit of kit.
However we have progressed most modern ECU use an FPGA which is reprogram in situ and these have been in common use for over 10 yrs. If the aircraft system didn't have them originally you can bet it has been upgrade because program changes become quicker and cheaper than box swapping.
Now that means there is an external access to them so plugging into the PC port or wireless may well make hacking possible.
I subscribe to the belief if you can build it someone will hack it, look at the so say secure financial systems that have been hacked. To see IT guys believing that a system is unhackable is frightening with it's complacency. Do you remember stuxnet?