Originally Posted by Kiwiguy
Anything on aircraft which is vulnerable to interference is also vulnerable to external hacking through wi-fi or whatever. There does not need to be an actual link between IFE or a laptop. A frayed wire or an unshielded electrical terminal can allow the aircraft to pick up digital signals within the cabin.
That is very far-fetched line of reasoning. There is an enormous gap between emitting RF that can be sensed by
aircraft systems, and hacking a network. Compare: turning your vacuum cleaner on next to the TV can cause the picture or sound to go wobbly. That doesn't mean you can program your TV by using your vacuum cleaner.
Originally Posted by Kiwiguy
This debate began before BA038 lost power on approach.
How fascinating that nobody wants to address the possibility in relation to that incident ?
I imagine the reason no one is considering it is that no one close to the investigation wants to seem like an idiot.
Ask yourself the following questions. Where are the FADECs? (Answer: a long way away from passengers). How well are they shielded from ambient RF? (Answer: very, very well). Why would two heavily-shielded devices in physically independent systems at different long distances away from a puny transmitter react at all, let alone in the same way, to RF from that puny transmitter? (Think inverse-square law.)
In contrast, you can be sure that RF interference from ground-based transmitters is being seriously considered. But we are talking high-intensity, probably focussed, powerful sources.
PBL