Delta Investigates Rogue Wi-Fi Signal on Flight Full of DEF CON Hackers
Delta Air Lines says it's looking into reports that a suspicious Wi-Fi network showed up on a flight departing Las Vegas shortly after DEF CON wrapped up. Several passengers, many of them security researchers heading home from the conference, noticed the rogue network and suspected it was tied to a deauthentication attack, a technique that forcibly disconnects devices from legitimate Wi-Fi so attackers can trick them into joining a fake network instead.
Deauth attacks are a well-worn party trick in hacker circles, often used to prank or test fellow attendees rather than steal data outright. But doing it 30,000 feet in the air, on a commercial aircraft's cabin network, is a different matter entirely, and understandably got Delta's attention. The airline hasn't confirmed exactly what caused the anomaly or whether any passenger devices or data were compromised.
Given the crowd on board, it's almost fitting that DEF CON's chaotic energy would follow attendees onto their flight home. Still, an unauthorized wireless network on an airplane raises real questions about how isolated in-flight Wi-Fi systems actually are from tampering, and how airlines would even detect this kind of interference in real time.