Every time I looked into such "hackers" claims as reported in the media it turned out to be yet another movie plot. For various reasons "providing false sensor information" on an AFDX network/ARINC bus would require physical access to something else than IFE. To give just one example of an obstacle I see to the "hacker commandeers a/c via IFE" scenario is that all devices connected to an AFDX network are known and addressing is based on a fixed table of MAC addresses, and switches do some form of traffic policing. The aim is to lower latency and ensure bandwidth but a side effect is that it hardens the network. While there may be a physical wire between IFE and other devices (this is what inspires the movie plots), from the perspective of an IFE terminal communication between avionics components pretty much happens on a secure channel. If I see a "hacker" with an AFDX analyzer in an avionics compartment I'd be a bit concerned, but a "hacker" with an Android phone or a laptop in his seat, not really.
Last edited by deptrai; 17th May 2015 at 06:46.