Delano Airport Hack Was Proof-of-Concept Demonstration

Yesterday, three instrument landings at the Porter Alexander Airport in Delano, GA were canceled as the Airport experienced problems with its instrument landing systems (ILS) equipment. This morning, Fred P. Ayres, the airport manager, confirmed reports that the problems were the result of a cyber-attack on the facility’s Ground Based Augmentation System, the system that refines GPS data for the instrument landing system used at the airport.

“We received a copy of an email message that was sent to the FAA claiming responsibility for the attack,” Ayres told reporters this morning. That email was from DBCoop2 and claimed that the attack yesterday was a proof-of-concept exploit of vulnerabilities that the researcher had discovered in the current generation of GBAS used by many airports across the country. The email offered to sell the Federal Airline Administration (FAA) the details about the vulnerability for 1-Bitcoin.

The airport had three landings diverted to other airfields yesterday. They occurred when planes were attempting to land during heavy rains and were forced to use the ILS system. One of the pilots, who did not want his name used because of his corporate affiliation, told me that when the corporate jet dropped below the cloud layer, they were lined up almost 200 meters to the right of the runway, right along the facility fence line. The pilot was able to safely pull out of his approach and requested diversion to an alternate field.

The FAA would not comment on the email and a written statement said that yesterday’s ILS anomalies were under investigation.

When asked about the incident at the National Critical Infrastructure Security Operations Center’s (CI-SOC) morning press briefing, Gen Turgidson told reporters that the CI-SOC had not been contacted about the incident, but that he would personally talk to the airport manager as soon as the brief was over. “I fly in and out of that field frequently,” Turgidson explained. Turgidson spent 10-years as an Air Force transport pilot before moving into cyber operations.

Robotron Aero, the company that manufactures the GBS system used at PAA said in a written statement that they had just been notified about the potential problem and were cooperating with the FAA and the Federal Bureau of Inquiry on the investigation.

CAUTIONARY NOTE: This is a future news story –