Originally Posted by
RichardKenner
Interesting, Gogo uses "capcha" to prevent automatic login systems. It's always been a nuisance to me, but it would prevent the scenario that this article worries about. I suppose not eliminating the "capcha" would be an acceptable price.
Ever notice how captcha is increasingly becoming unintelligible to humans? Activating my son's Droid took 20 captcha attempts last week. The reason why captcha is unintelligible to humans now is because software from crackers has become very good.
So in theory, a terrorist could put a bomb in the hold of the plane that contains a netbook with a 20 hour battery that comes out of standby at the appointed time, logs into Gogo, and if successful, detonates (perhaps after receiving a confirmation Instant Message from a ground controller).
Seems rather involved to me. A netbook with the cellular broadband modem (some netbooks come with these built in) is far less convoluted, and has the advantage of built in location detection that works independent of GPS. A terrorist can buy a couple thousand of these, write some software, and not have to worry if the plane's Wi-Fi is working. IME, a plane departing ORD heading east provides good location signal to Google Maps until the place gets too high over Michigan (sometimes my blackberry turns itself on during the flight, I notice it over the pond, and see that Google Maps' last location was Detroit).
The only answer is ban everything except for naked passengers who have had a cavity search and whole body cat scan. For good measure, sedate the passengers.