DEF CON 33: Air communications are not encrypted and AI can manipulate pilots.

A hacker spoke about the fragility of airline communications and how easily controller voices can be cloned using artificial intelligence to steer planes in the wrong direction and cause accidents. This was during a talk at DEF CON , one of the world's largest hacking conferences .

“With the right know-how, an adversary could create an AI voice clone and impersonate an air traffic controller, direct a flight to cross an active runway and cause an accident , or even compromise the legitimacy of the air traffic control system in general,” Andrew Logan told Clarín .

Logan is a sound engineer living in Washington, D.C., one of the most congested cities in the world. Tired of hearing the constant noise of planes flying low over his neighborhood, he started the Twitter account @HelicoptersofDC and, almost unwittingly, became a local reference for helicopter identification.

There, he posts photos, identifies models, and explains which agency or mission is behind each flight, using public data (known in the hacking world as OSINT ). He has thousands of followers.

During his talk, held before a packed audience at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Logan recalled the plane crash earlier this year in Washington , citing it as an example of the risk the current situation poses. The analyst provided details about his research and proposed possible solutions to this potential problem created by the impressive advancement of artificial intelligence. He then spoke with Clarín .

The starting point of the Logan conference was that air communications are unencrypted. “To begin with, all civil air traffic control radio communications are unencrypted worldwide. The key issue is maintaining interoperability with flights from the 193 member countries of the International Civil Aviation Organization,” he explained.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1944 to establish international safety standards for civil aviation.

Encryption involves protecting communications from being intercepted by a third party. Since there is no aeronautical encryption system, it's not very difficult for an attacker to exploit current AI tools. "This threat is magnified in adverse weather conditions, where pilots must rely more heavily on controller instructions," Logan added.

This has always been the case, he explains, but until now, such advanced artificial intelligence systems for cloning voices, so easily accessible, did not exist.

There have even been cases. “There are numerous instances of pranksters briefly interfering with air traffic control, and reports suggest it wasn't difficult to locate and stop them. What we haven't seen is a sophisticated and systematic attack on air traffic control frequencies comparable to the drone incident at Gatwick (UK) in December 2018, which led to the cancellation of 58 flights,” he explains.

Currently, apps like ElevenLabs are easily accessible and used to clone voices. “Like the recent concerns about drones , a single incident of voice cloning could create a 'mass hysteria' of doubt among pilots and controllers about which commands are reliable,” says Logan.

Talks about vulnerabilities in the airwaves are a regular feature at hacker conferences. Last year, two Argentinians demonstrated how airlines' reservation systems can be disrupted at Ekoparty , the Latin American hacker convention held in Buenos Aires every year.

In addition to explaining this vulnerability in the air system, Logan raised possible ways to counter this new threat.

First, he explains, it's important to understand the most vulnerable moment to this type of attack. "Since the Mid-Air Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) is capable of automatically resolving conflicts between flights in the air, the greatest threat is ground traffic crossing runways during takeoff and landing . TCAS is typically inactive below 1,000 feet above ground level."

Among the currently existing protocols, there are options that could be more secure: "There are other radio communication methods , proposed or adopted, that could serve as alternatives in the event of a loss of confidence. The oldest is HF [high frequency] radio, which is at the lower end of the spectrum and is used on transatlantic and transpacific flights." Although, he acknowledges, "it is unclear whether controllers would be able to coordinate a switch to these frequencies in the event of interference."

As a concrete solution, Logan proposes complementing radio communication with visual communication : “Installing stop bars that serve as illuminated stop signs integrated into the runway would resolve the confusion between controllers and pilots, although these systems are radio-controlled, so they may be susceptible to more sophisticated attacks.” It would be like “two-factor authentication” for aircraft, he says.

“Enhanced flight vision systems could also help pilots maintain situational awareness during critical phases, including forward-facing cameras, infrared cameras, and radars used during takeoff and landing,” he added.

According to Logan, there is hope: “We hope that a radio communications encryption standard will be established for civil aviation by 2030,” but the problem isn't so easily resolved. “Even then, legacy systems will remain in service for general aviation and countries that are slow to adopt what will likely be a costly upgrade ,” he explained.

Logan has positioned itself as a beacon of the aerospace community. Its history has much to do with its origins: as a major political center, Washington has an unusual concentration of helicopters compared to other cities. Federal agencies, security forces, military squadrons, and presidential flights transform the airspace into "a war zone," say many residents of this District of Columbia city.

At DEF CON, there's a special focus on the sky and space: there's a village dedicated to the aerospace world that, year after year, analyzes and discusses everything related to the spectrum, from airplanes and helicopters themselves to communications and even satellites.

Logan's account has become a reference for air enthusiasts. In addition to highlighting potential vulnerabilities, his project combines curiosity with outreach. As a journalist, he investigates some topics in depth, although he considers it partly a hobby.

When asked why he gave this talk, he replied: “I hope that talking about this topic will raise awareness among pilots and controllers , so they can be better prepared to identify and respond to threats should they arise.”