Boeing Dreamliner exposed to passenger hacking

The US Federal Aviation Administration has revealed it fears that Boeing's 787 Dreamliner computer systems could be hacked by passengers.

The 787's flight, business and administrative support navigation systems, and entertainment systems -- including Internet services offered to passengers -- are not sufficiently isolated, according to a report issued by the FAA this week.

"It allows new kinds of passenger connectivity to previously isolated data networks connected to systems that perform functions required for the safe operation of the airplane," the report said. "Because of this new passenger connectivity, the proposed data network design and integration may result in security vulnerabilities from intentional or unintentional corruption of data and systems critical to the safety and maintenance of the airplane."

Boeing currently has 800 orders for the 787 Dreamliner, which it began assembling in 2007, three years after it was initially launched. The 787, which seats up to 381 passengers, is set to become Boeing's second most popular plane after the 737 with almost half of Qantas's 51 orders from Boeing made up of 787s.

The FAA has outlined special conditions regarding the design of the 787's computer networks that Boeing must meet before the aircraft can be used commercially.

The FAA's conditions stipulated the 787's network design must prevent any changes -- malicious or otherwise -- to any of the aircraft's hardware and software systems from within the "entertainment and information network" used by passengers.

Although the International Air Line Pilots Association has recommended that the planes are also equipped with a system for flight crew to manually disable passengers' ability to connect to certain networked systems, the FAA has said it will not impose technical requirements on Boeing, but rather allow Boeing to develop its own solution to the FAA's functional requirements.