Delta Air Lines Inc. is investigating an unauthorized Wi-Fi network on a Monday flight out of Las Vegas, where a major cybersecurity conference was held over the weekend.
The US airline is working with federal law enforcement officials and aviation regulators to examine the activation of the network “for a short time,” said Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant. It prompted the flight crew to deactivate the Boeing Co. 757 aircraft’s Wi-Fi for about 30 minutes, but “there was no hack of any Delta system” and air traffic control personnel did not declare an emergency.
“Safety of flight was never in question and no aircraft operating systems were affected,” Durrant said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. “We are fully investigating to gather a complete set of facts, which will take time.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is aware of reports of a “potential Wi-Fi-related incident” on the flight and is in touch with local and corporate partners, said spokespeople for the bureau’s Atlanta office. They declined to provide further information.
A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said the agency was looking into the report. A breach of an onboard Wi-Fi system would not affect a flight’s critical safety systems, the spokesperson said.
Delta Flight 591 was traveling to Atlanta from Las Vegas the day after the Nevada city hosted DEF CON, which bills itself as the world’s largest hacking and security conference. A DEF CON spokesperson said the conference organizers had not been contacted by Delta or law enforcement but planned to launch their own investigation.
“DEF CON does not encourage or condone illegal activities,” said spokesperson Monika Hathaway. “If one of our attendees was involved, we will ban them from attending in the future and apologize to everyone affected.”
It is relatively simple to disrupt a Wi-Fi network and replace it with another internet access point, allowing the person behind the disruption to read unencrypted data transmitted over the network, said Lennart Koopmann, founder of cybersecurity firm Nzyme. He said the two-step attack can be carried out with battery-powered devices smaller than a box of cigarettes that sell for about $250. Such devices are commonly used by security testers.
“My suspicion is that a passenger bought such a device and tried it out on the plane,” said Koopmann, whose firm protects against close-range cyberattacks.
Representatives for the Atlanta Police Department, Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Transportation Security Authority didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Photo: Delta airlines passengers planes at LaGuardia airport in New York City. Photographer: Daniel Slim/AFP/Getty Images
Topics Aviation
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