Terror by laptop

[Kevin Robert Dean]

Terror warning over laptops
WASHINGTON DC -- AIRLINERS could be brought down by
terrorists using modified versions of almost any
personal electronic equipment, a security expert has
warned. He says passengers should be barred from
carrying any electronic gadgets onto aircraft until
planes are able to detect them. Chet Uber, a
technology expert at Security Posture in Omaha,
Nebraska, says devices such as radios, tape recorders,
CD players, PDAs and laptop computers could easily-
and invisibly- be adapted to cause potentially
catastrophic interference with an aircraft's control
systems. 
While it has been known for some time that cellphones
and laptops can cause low-level interference, no
airline monitors such radio emissions during flight.
Instead they rely on passengers turning off their
devices during critical periods such as take-off and
landing. But Uber told the InfoWar conference in
Washington DC that the renewed terrorist threat means
we should take seriously the possibility someone might
intentionally interfere with the plane's instruments. 

Currently, if any device being used by a passenger
disturbs the normal operation of a plane, pilots have
no monitoring system to tell them whether that problem
is due to interference or a malfunction. This leaves
aircraft wide open to attack from a device operated by
a passenger. 

For example, Uber says a terrorist with a basic
knowledge of electronics could modify the circuitry in
many common gadgets to create an electromagnetic
weapon. Such a device might interfere with critical
flight electronics, such as the guidance system that
monitors the aircraft's "glide slope", which helps the
pilot descend smoothly when landing. And at baggage
check, even an electronics engineer might not be able
to spot that an apparently innocent piece of equipment
had been modified.

In 1996, the US Federal Aviation Administration funded
a feasibility study by MegaWave Corporation of
Boylston, Massachusetts, into ways of detecting
interfering signals inside aircraft cabins. MegaWave
developed a system that scans for a wide range of
radio emissions inside the cabin, via sensors mounted
above each passenger seat. This would allow the flight
crew to quickly pinpoint the source.

But after successful demonstrations, MegaWave was told
that the FAA was pulling the plug on the research.
MegaWave spokesman Marshall Cross believes that it
abandoned the project because no commercial air
incidents have ever been attributed to interference
from electronic equipment in the passenger cabin.

"They've given commerce a higher priority than
safety," says Uber. "This is a clear threat that has
not been taken seriously enough." The makers of
laptops, in particular, heavily lobbied the FAA not to
ban their equipment on planes . But Uber says no
electronic gadget should be allowed inside a
commercial aircraft unless the airline knows it's
safe. 

###
New Scientist issue: 14th September 2002 

BY DUNCAN GRAHAM-ROWE

PLEASE MENTION NEW SCIENTIST AS THE SOURCE OF THIS
STORY AND, IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A
HYPERLINK TO: http://www.newscientist.com

=====
Kevin Dean
Buffalo, NY
ICQ: 8616001
AIM: KDean75206
Buffalo Activist Network
http://www.buffaloactivist.net
http://www.yaysoft.com

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