In 2014, a real storm broke out on the web when it turned out that the American army still uses outdated computers from the seventies and 8-inch floppy disks, and moreover, there was also talk of a device by which the military receives an order from the president
with the use of nuclear weapons!
Fortunately, the Department of Defense decided to do something about it, so at the end of last year we found out that the floppy disks are a thing of the past replaced by modern SSDs, which does not change the fact that there are many more components to replace.
only the army relies on old school solutions and Boeing also uses the 32-year-old storage solution.
Yes, exactly the one from the planes we fly, incl.
on vacation, which appeared on the occasion of the review of one of the Boeing 747s from British Airways, which has retired due to the coronavirus pandemic flight restriction.
The discovery was made by cybersecurity company Pen Test Partners (PTP), and as you can learn from the published video, the aircraft's navigation system still uses 3.5 '' floppy disks for an update every 28 days, which means you can still meet engineers with boxes
Interestingly, according to Aviation Today, not only Boeing 747s rely on floppy disks, because a significant number of airlines still use similar software update solutions: - Many Boeing 737s rely on floppy disks for aviation software for years
and as the databases are getting bigger and bigger, some engineers download updates from up to 8 floppy disks.
These contain key information about airports, routes, runways, waypoints and much more, specialists explain.
It cannot be denied that the use of such an old technology can be disturbing, because it would seem that when human life is at stake, it is used as the most modern solutions. Because is such an old system able to resist even hacking attacks?
And it's worth remembering that for some time there have been reports that someone with the right skills will easily hack the on-board entertainment system and take control of the plane.
Specialists assure that it is practically impossible, because there are many different security measures between these systems, and although a breach in British Airways security has recently been found, it has not yet been possible to prove that the passenger could take control of the plane in this way.
In short, some doubts arise, and the use of 3.5-inch floppy disks does not help - luckily, modern airplanes use much more modern solutions.