While the TSA is hard at work removing dangerous water and groping passengers, others are figuring out how to take over an aircraft remotely, using specialized attack code and an android smartphone.

"A presentation at the Hack In The Box security summit in Amsterdam has demonstrated that it's possible to take control of aircraft flight systems and communications using an Android smartphone and some specialized attack code....Teso's attack code, dubbed SIMON, along with an Android app called PlaneSploit, can take full control of flight systems and the pilot's displays. The hacked aircraft could even be controlled using a smartphone's accelerometer to vary its course and speed by moving the handset about."

It's certainly something to think about the next time you have to "voluntarily surrender" a highly dangerous object.

Read more here.

Edit: corrected misspelled title.

Debunked:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04..._hijack_claim/

Rather than a debunking, I see a denial. The FAA did not explain why the attack code would not work, they simply claimed it would not. In making that claim, the FAA does not explain why a system that accepts and executes unauthenticated messages should be considered secure.

All I read that I agree with us that the crew can intervene.

Perhaps all these threads about this <redacted> could be combined?

Or better yet, deleted .