SingaporeJoe

Let's say you harvest someone else's connection and use that to piggyback to the service he/she paid for.

Or you crack the service and read the communication of someone else on the plane.

It's not necessarily very secure. Don't think we have conclusive evidence, but there are serious concerns:
http://www.sniffwifi.com/2011/03/get-personal-gogo.html

Under which country's jurisdiction would that be handled? The forensics would definitely be interesting, not mentioning the questions of liability.

SingaporeJoe

Here's a summary with less tech talk.
http://www.privatewifi.com/flying-na...-is-so-unsafe/

And of course, you can always trust the TSA, Air Line Pilots Association and alike to overreact and probably find a way to eventually ban the whole thing [or demand access to the content of all communications]. Doesn't that just give you a warm fuzzy.
http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world...ks-743309.html

Xlr

Emirates uses OnAir, not Gogo.

I have no idea how secure OnAir is, though.

Dave Noble

Why would anyone expect a public wireless system to be secure?

If concerned about security for work communications, then run through a secure tunnel to the office

How is it any different to any other public internet access point?

SingaporeJoe

Technically, not different at all but wearing my beloved tin foil hat, I can imagine two scenarios that are different from a corner cafe Internet access:

1) If someone gets hacked, it may be difficult to establish which jurisdiction applies and whether, say, the airline needs to provide system logs and such for the forensics - and whether those logs are in such form that they can be admitted as evidence in that jurisdiction.

1') A variant of this is the question of privacy, intellectual property rights and such if you access online content.

2) If the likes of TSA (or their non-American counterparts who like to argue that they have a right to exercise certain powers to ensure airline safety) decide that they need to have access to the content of the communication, will you be required to release the cryptographic keys you have used in securing the air to ground communication either as a requirement to enter the destination country or as a requirement from any countries whose air space you have been to during the flight?

The "smoking anywhere in the plane is an offence" signs usually say that if you smoke, you will be subject to the laws of the home country of the airline. But for example when you fly to the USA there are all these announcements that you are supposed to sit stiff at your seat and not have ad hoc meetings at the corridors. So, which set of rules applies to the air to ground communication?

These are quite important issues if you intend to use the plane WiFi access to operate on work related matters and those matters involve any sensitive data that you have a contractual or legal duty to safeguard. This is quite a different ball game from just social networking and browsing the net while flying.

Dave Noble

If customs want access to contents of a computer before entering country they could require it anyway, confidential data on it or otherwise

Noone should use public networks if paranoid on security ; beyond that , if a company has policies , then follow those policies if choosing to use company assets on any public network

SingaporeJoe

I do not disagree with you, Dave. Being someone who eats and breaths and sleeps security [and is paranoid about it], I merely wanted to point out that the risks of using a plane WiFi may be different from the risks of using land based public WiFi. And the corporate policies that apply to public WiFi may not be sufficient to address plane WiFi.

When traveling to certain countries, I do not take with me any files that I do NOT work on at that trip. I also leave behind PGP keys and wipe clean the hard disk for any residual info so that I can not be made to release the keys to officials. However, I do need various other crypto keys so that I can access email.

I use a non-caching email client which in a public WiFi [read: anything untrusted, whether encrypted or not] sufficiently protects the email from eavesdropping. In a plane WiFi access the threat agents become different [i.e. the types that can force me to release the keys] and the protection offered by the client would not be sufficient. There are countries out there who are very aggressive in acquiring intellectual property.

Paella747

Just a note that the A380 that I took from Seoul to Dubai on 19dec11 was supposed to have the WIFI.

They announced it just after takeoff, but I searched and couldn't find any network that I could sign in to. I asked the flight attendant, and he stated that WIFI was normally on this plane, but wasn't working for this flight. Bummer! That would have killed some time!! So I just watched several Kathy Griffin stand-up acts on my computer and laughed myself to sleep.....

Gorilaz

used the service on my last flight to MAN. 100mb for US$25 even when flying in F. You are not tied to a single device, i was using my laptop and iPad using the same log on name password. Did not check if you can have more than one device on at the same time. You can keep topping up which is pretty good. Not a bad service.

pslron

Any update on whether this is operational? I leave Sunday. Can't wait to try FC!!!!

Is JFK lounge open 24hrs? We arrive JFK at 1pm but depart 11pm

jackiedada

Not on all A380s. You'll get to know after you board.

I doubt if it is open 24 hours. From what I am aware of, for the late night flight, the earliest you can check in is at 3:30 pm when Emirates open a counter on the side. You can proceed to the lounge there after.

Xlr

What if you printed out your boarding pass already?

I would say wait till ~3pm outside the security check (there are restaurants and shopping out there) then go in.

Or, just call 1800-777-3999 and ask about this.

N830MH

http://www.itp.net/588436-onair-offe...emirates-a380s

Great news! Now, you can offering to use wi-fi on all A380 fleets. You can surfing the Internet during on 30,000 feet.

Enjoy the flight.

torontoflyer

WiFi worked perfectly for me on both legs to and fro JFK.
you have to login in for each device (you cannot have 2 simultaneous devices using the net at the same time)

N830MH

You have pay for it. Is that free of charge? How much cost is that?