Latest news with #airports
Forbes
6 hours ago
- Forbes
TSA Warning—Stop Using These Smartphone Chargers
Republished on July 31 with new guidance for Android and iPhone owners on the specific vulnerabilities for their devices following TSA's warning. It's holiday season. And as millions of travelers prepare to jet off from airports across the U.S. and beyond, the Transportation Security Administration's recent phone charger warning for airline passengers has suddenly been given some added urgency. The security agency has told airport travelers to 'bring your TSA-compliant power brick or battery pack and plug in there,' rather than use public charging points. 'When you're at an airport, do not plug your phone directly into a USB port.' This relates to so-called juice jacking, which along with the overhyped threat from public WiFi is guaranteed to irk cybersecurity professionals. But just as TSA's airport WiFi warning has been reinforced by the security industry, so it is now with charging. 'Public USB ports should never be treated as safe,' warns NordVPN's Adrianus Warmenhoven (via ZDNet), following its new report into the threat from choicejacking. This enhancement on juice jacking can bypass the protections in your smartphone to trick it into accepting a data cable connection when it shouldn't. Warmenhoven describes choicejacking as 'a dangerous evolution in public charging threats. With a single deceptive prompt, attackers can trick people into enabling data transfer, potentially exposing personal files and other sensitive data.' Per Hackread, 'the rise of choicejacking reinforces what cybersecurity experts have said for years: public USB ports should not be trusted. Even at airports, hotels, or cafés, a compromised charger could be waiting to hijack your device.' That's debatable. Most public charging warnings are met with a fair amount of cyber derision. It's a blunt force attack. You're only likely to be specifically targeted by a malicious charging point or cable if you're in a high risk vocation or location. But what choicejacking has done is shown how a phone can be tricked into thinking a physical connection is one thing — a keyboard for example, while in reality it's something else. And data can be stolen as a result. If you consider your risk profile to be high, this should be a consideration. Use your own charger and cable. And bear in mind that when your phone is unlocked while charging, it's more vulnerable to this attack — if juice jacking attacks really exist, of course. Meanwhile, Android Authority has issued guidance for Android and iPhone users, setting out the different risks for each platform. Again, subject to that reality check. Attacks on Android phones 'exploit permissions for peripherals,' the website explains, using Android's Open Accessory Protocol for accessories such as 'mice or keyboards. Attackers can then begin hijacking system input through ADB (or Android Debug Bridge), which can simulate user input and change the USB mode to allow data transfer. The attack then proceeds with a series of commands aimed at gaining complete control of the device and gaining key access for further control.' iOS is different. 'A rigged USB cable or charger can be used to trigger a connection event for a Bluetooth device. Although it may appear as a regular Bluetooth-based audio accessory to your iPhone, it could act as the machinery to secretly allow data transfer and gain access to specific files and photos. However, it cannot access the entire iOS system as it can on Android.'
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
UK's top airports reveal the best time to fly
UK airports are experiencing their busiest summer, with early mornings (typically 6am-8am) being the peak time for passenger traffic due to airlines maximising aircraft and crew productivity. To avoid the busiest periods, passengers are advised to book flights departing later in the day, after the initial "first wave" of departures. The "halfway point" for passenger departures, when half of the day's travellers have left, varies significantly between UK airports and can also depend on the day of the week. While an even spread would place the halfway point at 2:30pm, most airports reach this milestone earlier, with Birmingham being the earliest at 8am and Southampton the latest at 2:50pm. Birmingham Airport, which has relaxed the "liquids rule", says half of its more than 26,000 daily departing passengers leave before 8am, highlighting the intensity of early morning travel.
BBC News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- BBC News
What went wrong with NATS' air traffic control system?
A radar problem used within the UK's air traffic control system caused chaos at airports in the UK and beyond on fault lasted a mere 20 minutes, but was enough to ground planes across the country, causing 150 flight cancellations and delays that have continued into what went wrong with this vital piece of air traffic technology? NATS, which is partly owned by the government, manages all of the UK's airspace for flights arriving and departing the country's has not provided lots of detail on Wednesday's outage other than saying there was "radar-related issue which was resolved by quickly switching to the back-up system".It said it reduced traffic during the outage for safety reasons and added that "there is no evidence" that it was caused by any cyber Secretary Heidi Alexander has said NATS told her it was "an isolated event and there is no evidence of malign activity".To understand how such a brief radar failure could cause such much havoc, Graham Lake, a former director general of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), said people should imagine the NATS air traffic network as "national infrastructure"."Think of the network as motorways in the sky," he told the BBC."When you lose something like surveillance radar coverage for whatever reason, the capability of your network degrades to a country lane."That's why the systems slow down when there's a technical failure." Is NATS to blame for the outage? Airlines have been vocal in their criticism of NATS, noting that this is the second time its system has failed since August 2023, more than 700,000 passengers were affected when some 500 flights were cancelled at the UK's busiest airports due to a major airline, Ryanair, has called for NATS chief executive Martin Rolfe to resign, arguing "no lessons" have been learned from the previous has called the outage "extremely disappointing".However, Mr Lake told the BBC's Today programme he did not believe it was fair to call for Mr Rolfe to lose his job, arguing that technical failures are "inevitable" and that "the recovery was quick".Even with the issues in 2023, NATS has been performing well "if you look at the minutes of outage over a period of years", he said. Are the UK's skies just too busy? Mr Lake said that the NATS performs well when compared with other countries - which also suffer from air traffic glitches - and that Wednesday's issue was a case of bad luck."The UK airspace is very busy, certainly among the busiest in the world. We are at the busiest time of year and the failure yesterday was at the busiest time of day, so it's not an ideal situation."Because of the congestion in the UK's skies, Heathrow Airlines Operators Committee, which represents airlines that fly from the airport, has called for more runways in the south east of England to increase group's chief executive Nigel Wicking said "the NATS operational teams do a phenomenal job" but that the system is "running hot" and "when things go wrong and we lose the system for even an hour the impact is major".The UK government has said it backs the expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick, and Luton airports, but critics argue the plans would increase emissions and air pollution.
TTG
a day ago
- TTG
'Technical problems' at Nats control centre prompt UK-wide flight delay warning
On Wednesday (30 July) afternoon, Nats said: 'As a result of a technical issue at Nats Swanwick air traffic control centre, we are limiting the number of aircraft flying in the London control area in order to ensure safety, which is always our first priority. We apologise for any delays this may cause." UK airports, including Edinburgh, East Midlands, Stansted, Birmingham and Manchester reported delays to departures as most have to use the London area airspace. However, in a further statement at 4.25pm, Nats added: "Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area. "We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption. We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.. Please check with your airline on the status of your flight.' Nats handles around 2.2 million flights and 250 million passengers travelling in UK airspace and provides services to 14 UK airports. It also manages all upper airspace across the UK, meaning flights that are crossing the UK but not landing here will also be affected.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Chaos at British airports as thousands of passengers are left 'stuck on the tarmac' after 'radar issues' ground flights
Thousands of passengers have been left stuck on the ground at airports across Britain due to 'radar issues'. Departures from airports including the UK's largest - London Heathrow - are on hold due to an ATC failure. Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Stansted, Manchester, Gatwick, and Luton are among those affected. Technical issues appear to have closed off London 's airspace, leaving lots of flights circling. One person on X reported a Heathrow bound flight is currently circling Ben Nevis while unable to land safely. This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
