German military aviation command launches cyber threat initiative

[LowcyGier]

A 2015 file photo showing an Airbus A400M military aircraft taking off from the Bundeswehr airbase in northern Germany. Concerns about cyber attacks on aircraft and in the broader aviation sector have grown sharply in recent years.

The German military's aviation safety chief has launched a new initiative against cyber threats, citing research that he said shows hackers can commandeer military airplanes with the help of equipment that costs about €€€€€5,000 (RM24,551).

A defence ministry spokesman told Reuters that development of new "aviation cyber expertise" would cover everything from raising consciousness about cyber threats to technical research projects and equipping aircraft with protective systems.

State Secretary Katrin Suder had backed the idea, which Major General Ansgar Rieks, head of the German Military Aviation Authority, proposed in a letter in June, the spokesman said.

Rieks said last week that he was unnerved by a demonstration by the government-funded German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bavaria showing hackers could take control of an aircraft with inexpensive equipment.

"That frightens me. I wrote to the state secretary about it and said doing nothing would amount to gross negligence," he said at a talk at a conference in Bueckeburg, Germany. He said the issue was also a vital concern for civil aviation.

He said military officials needed to focus not just on potential problems with computer software, but should also work to "ensure that airplanes cannot be taken over from the ground, or possibly by a passenger in the air".

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