Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wi-Fi system 'safe', says Boeing

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2003 04:53:54 -0400

Wi-Fi System Safe, Says Boeing
 Contributed by mmasnick on Fri, Aug 1 2003

Along comes yet another security expert declaring that Boeing's Connexion
WiFi-in-the-sky plan as unsafe.
They say there are too many things that could go wrong allowing WiFi on a plane
and, worse, the system
needs to "re-authenticate" with a WiFi access point on the ground every time it
finds a new one. Except, as
Boeing quickly pointed out in response, that's not how their system works at all.
The WiFi is only to an access
point on the plane, and then the connection runs via satellite. As Boeing says,
the analyst's position comes
"from a position of ignorance". It seemed pretty clear from the beginning that
this wasn't WiFi to the ground, so
I'm not sure why anyone would assume that it would, or come out with a report
suggesting it did work that way.
www.techdirt.com
======================================================================================

Story URL:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,39115424,00.htm

Wi-Fi system 'safe', says Boeing
Tony Hallett
silicon.com
August 01, 2003, 15:00 BST

The unit at Boeing responsible for developing in-flight Wi-Fi equipment has
defended itself in the face of comments that such
airborne wireless connectivity will be insecure.

The market for wireless LANs that can be used on flights appears to be set to take
off and is a natural extension of Wi-Fi
offerings in terminals and other public places. Carriers such as British Airways
and Germany's Lufthansa have been trialling
Boeing's Connexion system.

However, security experts at ICSA Labs, a division of TruSecure, are concerned
about what they characterise as potential
network weak spots and other human factors inside a cramped cabin. They pointed
out that Wi-Fi and Ethernet are well
established but have never been exposed to such extreme environments as an
aeroplane.

Bob Dietterle, Connexion by Boeing's CTO, told silicon.com: "We have been
operating and flying our system for almost three
years. We have used IT and security professionals to hammer the system to find
traffic bottlenecks and vulnerabilities. Yes, this
is a challenging environment but that is why we have done so much network,
security, EMI and flight safety testing."
Connexion uses satellite connections at many megabits per second (Mbps) to connect
a plane to the terrestrial internet.
Passengers then get access, at speeds expected to be in the region of 156Kbps when
commercial services kick off, using
laptops and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as PDAs.

Another of TruSecure's warnings is that "the system has to re-authenticate every
time it goes out of range of a Wi-Fi station on
the ground and comes in range of another. This creates a stress on the system and
frequent crashes... It provides a path into the
inboard system for hackers, just like locking and unlocking the door to a house."

But Connexion's Dietterle rejected that assessment. He said: "This is really not
how our system works and is really spoken from
a position of ignorance in terms of how satellite-based communications operate.
That's why Boeing is uniquely positioned to
develop and bring a system like Connexion forward into the market -- it's one of
our core competencies."

Connexion maintains a satellite connection with its Network Operations Center and
coordinates satellite hand-offs. It says it
maintains a secure virtual private network (VPN) session -- VPNs being a must for
business users contemplating the service to
stay in touch with their company networks -- through satellite handovers.

A spokesman for BA said following its trial with Connexion the airline is
evaluating results with a view to making a final
commercial decision in the autumn. He said feedback from those involved, including
passengers, has been good and the
technology has proven "robust". BA is now working on developing its business case,
he added.

Connexion by Boeing, who have for two years operated a 737-400 testbed aircraft,
said its data on security testing has from
this summer been accepted by the airlines, the UK's Civil Aviation Authority,
Germany's LBA and the US Federal
Communications Commission (FCC).

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