Indian pilots annoying by Pakistani Hackers

Along with Pakistani terrorists, even Pakistani hackers are also started to teasing India. This time their target is Indian aircraft. 

image is just for reference purpose

Yes, Somehow it’s weird but true.  Pakistani hackers are up to some real job by teasing the pilots of Indian passenger’s planes landing into the airports close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Occupied Kashmir. 

They have been breaching networking protocols of Indian airports for some time now, reported Times of India.  They are able to disrupt communication between the pilots and the control tower just before landing and start playing Pakistan’s patriotic songs like “Dil Dil Pakistan” in the cockpit.

A senior pilot (name cannot be disclosed), who regularly takes flights to Jammu and Thoise Air Force base, was mentioned that Pakistan hackers have been doing so by matching the frequency of the communication between the plane and the control tower. However, Indian pilots have now adopted an alternate communication process to avoid getting hacked by Pakistani hackers.

“We revert to the Northern Control in Udhampur. The Northern Control calls up the Jammu ATC (Air Traffic Control) on landline and gets alternate frequency from them. It then tells pilots to speak to Jammu on that frequency,” the unnamed pilot was mentioned as saying to Times of India.

As per report from senior pilot, into this situation, pilots have to revert communication with Northern Control in Udhampur. This Indian Airforce ATC coordinates with aircraft when they are over 10,000 feet high and on descending below that level, they switch over to the Jammu tower. The Northern Control calls up the Jammu ATC on landline and gets alternate frequency from them. It then tells pilots to speak to Jammu on that frequency. 

He also said that hackers are unable to hack into the alternate frequency quickly, pilots get time to land into Jammu or Thoise by being in touch with the ATC.

Pilots are forced to use very high frequency (VHF) at the line of sight communication (only communicate if its visible). Because of this, hackers can frequently jam the frequency with ATC and start playing their national song. Of course it is quite irritant on the final stage of landing.

As of now as a part of security and precaution Jammu ATC have diverted their frequency to avoid further disturbance.