Will Boeing's 787 Be Safe From Hackers?

For those of you that don't know - the security expert, Mr. Schneier, referenced in the article is famous for being alarmist and using scare tactics.

In this case, he is technically correct in what he is saying, but he is unable or unwilling to state what a responsible security person would tell the public. Which is... that although many types of attacks are possible on many parts of our infrastructure and nothing can be 100% secure, its usually the weak links that are the most commonly exploited. If a hacker wanted to destroy airplanes or perform other devious acts, he or she has many more appealing areas to go after that already exist.

i.e. if I was Dr. Evil Hacker, I would try to compromise the Ground Controller and go for a two plane collision that neither of which I was on - rather than try to hijack the pilot's heading while riding in the back...

Yeah, but you have to factor in the motives of the attacker. If two planes collide, would he be able to claim it as his doing or would it be written off as an accident or negligence on the part of the air traffic controller?

Getting control over the plane itself seems to be pretty irresistible for criminals judging from what the industry has witnessed so far.

Cant you have 2 separate networks???? Thats what I do when I want extreme security.

The flight control system would not even be connected to the same wires as the passenger internet.

What I dont get is this statement:
Airbus told the FAA in a written comment that such a solution "is not technically and operationally viable."

I was thinking the same thing.. Why the hell would the flight instruments need to be on the same network? Or even on any network?!

I work as an aircraft maintenance engineer, avionics, for a large airline that operates those big jets... theres no way in hell those airplanes are prone to hacking... reason for that is because there is ABSOLUTELY NO COMMUNICATION LINK between the flight systems and the entertainment systems.

... no airplane design engineer gonna be stupid enough to do that.

I was thinking the same thing.. Why the hell would the flight instruments need to be on the same network? Or even on any network?!

Yeah, I was wondering that too...