“One common problem we see is an almost complete lack of hardening of those devices,” Munro says. A lack of consistent standardization on how to treat tablet- or laptop-based EFBs for security purposes introduces a host of disturbing potential new vulnerabilities, Munro and colleagues say. Unfortunately, however, EFBs are slipping into a gray area in airline security protocols. They’re a really, really good device for helping keep flights safe and efficient.” “Sometimes you see them physically bolted onto the cockpit. “An EFB is typically a tablet or a Windows device that’s usually taken home by the pilot,” Munro says. The primary focus was on vulnerabilities introduced by electronic flight bags (EFB). “One of us had the bright idea to ring up a breaker’s yard and say: ‘Have you got anything that still works?’ They did, so we started learning.”įour years after they first got their hands on a recently retired airliner, Munro and colleagues spent the first two days of Infosecurity Europe (InfoSec)-a major event on the UK’s cybersecurity calendar-holding presentations and panel discussions on aviation cybersecurity. “Three of us are pilots,” says Ken Munro, who founded the British company in 2010. The reason Pen Test Partners (PTP) focuses on aircraft cybersecurity is simple. Disclosures and collaboration can boost protection.Industry needs improved standards for electronic flight bag security.

But one cybersecurity company with an unusually deep interest in aviation says the sector’s embrace of digital technology is heading in a direction that might make hacking an airplane possible.

What they end up doing is iterative calculations and flight tests to come up with the graphs / tables.Despite some headline-making claims over the past decade, there are no instances on record of unauthorized entities accessing the flight controls of an airliner. We don’t know the speed after one second because we don’t know the average acceleration. And weĭon’t know the thrust after one second because we don’t know the speed after one second. We can’t find the average acceleration because we don’t know the thrust after one second. Need to calculate the average acceleration in order to find the airplane speed after one second. Here’s the complication: for the very first increment of time after engine failure, one second, we Here's why there is no equation, from the Boeing book Jet Transport Performance Methods: Source: Getting to grips with aircraft performance (Airbus via skybrary.aero) There is no manual formula, either the charts or a performance calculator such as the Airbus FOVE or the company's proprietary software. The RTOW (regulatory takeoff weight) charts are runway and configuration specific, so the length and slope (and permanent obstacles) and all taken care of (see red box below).

A350 performance calculator