Everyone makes mistakes at work, but having a no-fly list posted on the internet seems like a real mess.
This is what reportedly happened with US airline CommuteAir.The Daily Dot reported(opens in new window) A Swiss hacker known as “Maia Arson Klimeu” discovered an unsecured server while using the professional search engine Shodan. many Sensitive information on our servers, including versions of the no-fly list that are four years old. It was reportedly discovered via a text file labeled “NoFly.csv”. That’s… not hard to guess.
blog post(opens in new window) Boredom was cited as the reason for finding a server by crimew, titled How to Completely Own an Airline in 3 Easy Steps. They were just hanging around and found it.
“At this point, I was clicking through probably 20 or so boring public servers, clicking with little interest, and suddenly I was seeing familiar words.” said crimew in a blog post. “There are a lot of references to ‘ACARS,’ ‘crew,’ etc. Many of the words I’ve heard before are most likely while binge-watching his YouTube videos of his pilots.” High. Jackpot. Public Jenkins his server belonging to CommuteAir.”
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CommuteAir, a US regional airline headquartered in Ohio, has confirmed that the information on its servers is genuine for the Daily Dot. The server has gone offline.
“The server contained data from the 2019 version of the federal no-fly list, including names and dates of birth,” Erik Kane, corporate communications manager at CommuteAir, told the Daily Dot. We were able to access certain Commutair employee and flight information, and have filed a notice with our Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to continue a full investigation.”
Information from the server has already been leaked, with some researchers saying:(opens in new window) That shows how biased the list is against Muslims.According to The Daily Dot(opens in new window)There are no official figures on how many names are on the no-fly list, but Senator Diane Feinstein (Democrat of California) suggested in 2016 that more than 81,000 people were on the list.
