July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Updated 12:39pm American Airlines says it’s back online but expects delays.

If you’ve got an American Airlines flight today, be prepared to wait. The company has grounded all of its flights after the computer systems that control its reservations went down.

“American’s network system is experiencing intermittent outages. At this time, we are holding all flights on the ground until later this afternoon, when we will provide another update,” said an American Airlines spokesperson in a statement sent to VentureBeat. “We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as we can, and we apologize to our customers for this inconvenience.”

After announcing the grounded flights today around 12pm Pacific time, the company tweeted nearly two hours later that it’s systems have been fully restored, but it expects that delays and cancellations will follow.

Wendy Nather, an analyst with 451 Research, currently stuck at an airport due to the grounding, explained to me that this is likely not the cause of a malicious attack.

“I’m actually sitting at DFW with thousands of my closest friends right now,” she told me in an email. “I do know that it’s not a hack; I know one of the people who is working to resolve the problem.”

The airline explained in a message on its website that flights will be grounded until at least 4:00pm Central Time. With its reservation system down, it wouldn’t be able to verify boarding passes.

What is causing the outage has yet to be explained. The company tweeted almost exactly an hour after it grounded all of its flights to say, “UPDATE: We’re currently unable to modify today’s reservations. However, when able, we’ll offer refunds or update travel at no charge.”

In the meantime, American Airlines is fielding questions on its Twitter account. Most of the answers direct people to call its reservation office later in the day or request that customers remain patient. The company also says that if your flight is delayed more than 90 minutes — which will likely be the case for many — and you don’t use your ticket, you can request a refund.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement sent to VentureBeat:

At the request of American Airlines, the FAA has put a ground stop in place for American flights nationwide. American Airlines requested the ground stops because of problems with its reservation system.

The FAA further suggests customers consult Flight Delay Information tool.

American Airlines image via Simon_sees/Flickr

Researcher and hacker Brad “Renderman” Haines knew airplanes could be hacked a year ago, before news hit of a German researcher’s app that can take over a plane’s flight controls. Now, he’s telling the nay-saying Federal Aviation Administration to prove its systems are safe, and says drones might have a similar problem.

“Really, it’s put up or shut up. If they say it’s secure, there should be no harm in publicly giving access to a test lab,” said Haines in an interview with VentureBeat. “Now, you don’t have to be a nation state in order to tinker with this stuff. You can be some bored guy on a couch.”

This week, German researcher Hugo Teso revealed an app that manipulates the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Report System (ACARS), which can give you access to the plane’s flight management system (FMS). You can communicate with ACARS through hacking the airline’s systems or using a special radio, according to Teso. From there, he could send his own information to the plane, such as “turn left.”

“Pilots receive no training on what happens … if there’s an outside intelligence manipulating the data. They’re not trained for that,” said Haines.

But the FAA, the European Aviation Safety Agency, as well as FMS creators Honeywell and Rockwell Collins have all denied that this can actually happen. They say Teso only tested his hack on simulated flight software and that the certified software couldn’t be tampered with or disabled in the same way.

The FAA’s statement as obtained by Forbes reads:

The FAA is aware that a German information technology consultant has alleged he has detected a security issue with the Honeywell NZ-2000 Flight Management System (FMS) using only a desktop computer. The FAA has determined that the hacking technique described during a recent computer security conference does not pose a flight safety concern because it does not work on certified flight hardware. The described technique cannot engage or control the aircraft’s autopilot system using the FMS or prevent a pilot from overriding the autopilot. Therefore, a hacker cannot obtain “full control of an aircraft” as the technology consultant has claimed.

But Haines is calling them out. Last year, he discovered a similar problem that lets you take over the transmissions between a pilot and the tower. He claims you can send fake transmissions that say things like, “There’s a plane coming straight at you!” The FAA — a year later — still hasn’t gotten in touch with him about the hack, according to Haines. Now, he’s turning his attention to drones.

As they start to enter our airspace, Haines says, drones are becoming aware of what’s around them so they can effectively get out of the way if a plane is headed in the same direction. But using the same hack as the one Haines created last year, he says drones could be tricked to actually move a plane’s path.

His research isn’t yet complete, but he says he’d like to “talk to [Teso] and compare notes and see if we can work together.”

He said, “It’s nice to see someone else looking at this and coming to the same conclusions. I’m not crazy.”

Brad Haines image via Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

The Federal Aviation Administration is thinking about relaxing rules for using electronic gadgets while aboard planes. Rather than requiring passengers to turn off their devices during takeoff or landing, the U.S. federal agency may now merely require passengers to put their reading devices into “airplane mode.”

The FAA set up a working group last year to study to the use of portable electronics on planes, and the agency may announce the recommended change during takeoff and landing regarding “reading devices.” That includes devices like the Amazon Kindle, but it apparently will not include cellphones. An Apple iPhone or Google Android mobile phone can’t be used, but an iPad might be OK. The group is expected to announce findings by July 31.

The New York Times reported that one FAA official, who asked for anonymity, said the agency was under a lot of pressure to either allow reading devices on planes or provide scientific evidence for why they cannot. The concern has been that the devices might interfere with a pilot’s ability to control the electronic gear in a plane. Right now, it is OK to use electric razors and audio recorders in a flight. The FAA declined comment to the New York Times.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

Last week, a Virginia House panel approved a two-year moratorium on drone use within the state. In December, Berkeley’s City Council debated a similar proposal from its Peace and Justice Commission. The commission wanted to prohibit the city from purchasing, borrowing, testing or using drones, or allowing “drones in transit.” Hobbyists would, however, have been allowed to use drones which didn’t carry cameras or audio surveillance equipment. The legislation was shot down because, as Berkeley Councilman Gordon Wozniak argued, “Berkeley doesn’t have jurisdiction over its airspace and can’t enforce it unless we buy Patriot missiles to shoot things down.” Both of these bills were prompted by law enforcement officials wanting to use drones for surveillance and intelligence gathering.The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) calls this “spying.”

These are the harbingers of debates to come as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) moves towards approving the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems for law enforcement. Groups such as the ACLU are working to stop this because of concerns over privacy. As M. Ryan Calo, my colleague at Stanford Law School and Director for Privacy and Robotics at the Center for Internet & Society, has written, U.S. privacy laws don’t address these issues. This means we are in for some significant legislative battles on Capitol Hill and in the Supreme Court. Calo says these “could be just the visceral jolt society needs to drag privacy law into the twenty-first century.

”No doubt, privacy is an important issue. But this is going to be the least of our concerns as drone technologies advance further. We are entering the “drone age” writes drone-builder Chris Anderson, whose company 3D Robotics sells drone kits to mix and match capabilities. With sensors, optics, and embedded processors advancing exponentially and prices dropping precipitously, do-it-yourself-ers are building even more sophisticated and smaller drones than what the U.S. government had a few years ago.

But you don’t have to be a DIY-er. The Parrot AR.Drone can be purchased on Amazon.com for $299. This quadcopter transmits 720p high-definition streaming video to an iPad or smartphone used to control it. The drone is equipped with a three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer, and also pressure and ultrasound sensors. Two or three decades ago, such sensors would have cost millions of dollars and weighed hundreds of pounds.

These drones provide useful capabilities for peeping toms or other criminals watching out for law enforcement. But they become a real threat when equipped with weapons, as a hobbyist who calls himself “Milo Danger” showed by mounting a paintball gun on a DIY drone. In a video, he demonstrated a drone flying and firing at stationary targets. The drone could as easily have been equipped with an assault gun, grenade, or Semtex explosives.

Current generations of DIY drones are controlled by Wi-Fi, so the distances they can travel are limited. But it isn’t hard to add autopilot capability to drones, allowing them to fly on their own for several miles. A smartphone, for example, has the processing power and additional sensors needed. Face-recognition technology on smartphones has also advanced to the point where it can identify an individual in a crowd. This means a teenager can, today, build a device similar to what the military uses to hunt terrorists in Afghanistan.

The same technology with a potential for evil can also be used for good, as evidenced by the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to discover and monitor environmental damage and monitor the well-being of rare species. There’s even a community called “Drones for Good” on Google Plus. A company called Matternet, a spin-off of Singularity University that I have advised in my capacity as Vice President of Innovation and Research there, is building a drone network that will operate in parts of the world where there are no roads or infrastructure. Matternet CEO Andreas Raptopoulos estimates that the network will be able to deliver packages for less than what the cheapest transport in the developing world—the motorcycle—costs.

Now, in the developed world, imagine Dominos delivering pizza, FedEx shipping packages from their local hubs to your house by drone, or Starbucks “drone-mailing” you a hot cup of coffee within 3 minutes of your having placed an order. All of this will soon be possible. Government regulations in the U.S. prevent drones being used for commercial use, but this is not the case in other countries. Entrepreneurs in Germany are already toying with pizza delivery.

Technology advances will rapidly increase the capacity and range of these delivery drones to the point that within a few years, we will be able to ship heavy goods—and even ourselves—using these technologies. The possibilities are endless: drones can be used to monitor and control road traffic, track endangered species, assist in disaster relief, crop management, and so on.

Regardless of how the legislative battles go, we need to be prepared. The U.S. is not the only country developing drone capabilities. Governments and DIY’ers all over the world are doing the same. The Chinese, in particular, are marketing military-quality drones that cost less than $1,000, according to Anderson.

There are, of course, deeply troubling security questions around America’s use of drones abroad, as evidenced by a classified 16-page Department of Justice white paper acquired by NBC News. In it, the government outlines its legal rationale for killing Americans abroad — Americans deemed to be a “senior, operational leader” of al-Qaeda or an affiliated group who pose an “imminent threat” to the United States.

Then there are the growing number of legal and security questions here at home. Is the Air Force able to shoot down swarms of drone bots should they attack? How can we fortify our schools and public facilities to keep them safe from unmanned drones? Then there is the question of gun rights — a particularly hot topic in recent weeks.

If we have the right to carry our own guns, why not our own drones?

Vivek Wadhwa is Vice President of Innovation and Research at Singularity University and Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University. His other academic appointments include Harvard, Duke and Emory Universities as well as the University of California Berkeley.

This story originally appeared in the Washington Post.

Photo credit: The U.S. Army via photopin

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Tickets On Sale Now

The Federal Communications Commission released a new set of rules today aimed at making it easier for airline carriers to offer their passengers in-flight Internet access — and I don’t think I’m alone when saying it’s about freakin’ time.

Of course, the FCC isn’t solely to blame for all the rigid and ridiculous restrictions placed on Internet access during a flight. The agency jointly regulates in-air communications along with the much more stodgy Federal Aviation Administration, which forces passengers to turn off all electronics before and slightly after a plane takes off.

“These new rules will help airlines and broadband providers offer high-speed Internet to passengers,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski told Bloomberg in a statement. Genachowski said he’s been pushing the FAA to approve a revised set of rules regarding electronic usage during flights. For instance, one dire exception the FAA has yet to even acknowledge is being able to use devices like iPads and iPhones during take off if the passenger is using the “Airplane Mode” setting that blocks all Internet connectivity.

Previously, Airlines needed approval by the FCC to offer an in-flight Wi-Fi service, which was a long and slow process that permitted some airlines to offer stellar web services while others were woefully left out. Under the new rules, the FCC will offer airlines an opportunity to meet a set of standards that make sure the Internet service won’t interfere with the plane’s controls or communications while it’s in the air. These standards permit the passenger/consumer Internet access to work with an aircraft’s other communications systems to ensure problems don’t exist.

According to the FCC, the new access rules should lead to faster adoption and licensing of Internet services across all airlines and offer a path toward FAA approval of updated electronic usage regulation.

While I’m glad to hear that I’ll soon have more opportunities to pay $49.95 for unlimited blazing-fast Wi-Fi service on my 75-minute flight to the next airport, I won’t be fully satisfied until flight attendants stop acting like anti-gadget police during take off. Luckily, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) shares my frustration, and earlier this month threatened to introduce new legislation for in-flight electronic use if the FAA doesn’t act soon.

Airplane photo via Chalabala/Shutterstock

Great news for Alec Baldwin and anyone else addicted to Words with Friends.

As early as March of next year, you may not have to tuck your iPad or Kindle away during takeoff and landing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced that they are forming a committee to reevaluate an old federal regulation that made passengers power off their electronic devices until the plane is at an altitude of at least 10,000 feet.

Personal electronic devices (PED) are prohibited during takeoff and landing due to fears that they “cause interference with navigation or communication systems on the aircraft,” the press release states. Harmful pilot killer rays have already been ruled out as a risk.

The FAA hopes to find out whether “widespread use of PEDs during flight is appropriate, while maintaining the highest levels of safety to passengers and aircraft.”

It’s also interesting that the FAA mentions “existing regulations allow the operator to authorize the use of PEDs, and that no specific FAA approval is required,” but it is responsible for assuring that the devices do not pose a risk during flight.

The FAA will seek comment from aircraft operators and review them in order to finally permit the widespread yet safe, use of electronic devices while on a plane.

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