Re: Backdoor Software Being Developed to Regain Control of Hijacked Aircraft

[Nick FitzGerald <nick () virus-l demon co uk>]

der Mouse to me:

> > Recall that the important end of the equipment that does the
> > controlling _is on the plane_, as are the hijackers.
>
> This is actually one of the easiest issues to address; all you need to
> do is make sure that it cannot be reached other than from outside the
> plane's skin without provoking major structural failure of the plane's
> body.

So, we need to re-design the plane's outside to retrofit these.  Hmmmm, 
with all the new testing that would require to ever allow it to happen, 
that's an even better solution...

> That said, I think this is a stupid idea.

I think it's clear we generally agree...

> > And would especially ruthless hijackers with, say, one of the new
> > "super-jumbo" A380 planes with 500+ hostages not simply start killing
> > hostages until the remote navigational override was turned off?
> > Whose government would actually NOT succumb to such a threat?
>
> I actually suspect that King George's might not.  They'd likely spin it
> as casualties in the War On Terror - unfortunate, but that's War.

I had exactly that "exemption" in mind as the most likely answer when I 
asked.  Given He (you are supposed to uppercase initial letters of 
pronouns representing royalty, and Popes, no??) has already had 2000+ 
of his fellow countryfolk killed in a pointless and stupid war that He 
knew had nothing to do with 9/11, and that he has no political future 
to be concerned about, I suspect that you're right...

Mind you, even on a US plane from a US airline, what proportion of the 
passengers at any one time do you suspect would NOT be USA-ians?

And not that this is apparently a European project.  Can you actually 
see enough of them agreeing, in a committee vote, to allow the 
activation of such a system in any given crisis given that there may 
well be at least one French, German, Italian, etc, etc national aboard 
any single afflicted flight?   8-)

> If they *did* hold out, it would immensely strengthen their position
> wrt a potential repeat.  The surest way to prevent blackmail is to
> demonstrate that you refuse to be blackmailed.

Thus hardening the resolve of those mad-crazy enough to "fly to their 
deaths", act as suicide bombers, etc...


Regards,

Nick FitzGerald

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