cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/47299437
United flight 236 from Newark to Palma de Mallorca on Saturday night was forced to turn around just an hour after takeoff due to security concerns around a Bluetooth signal. Multiple Redditors claimed to be on the flight and reported that the crew repeatedly requested passengers to turn off their Bluetooth. According to one poster, […]
Slightly off topic - I work at a music festival as a stage tech sometimes. One time on this small festival, in the middle of the night, I was enjoying a after work beer and a bartender came up to me and asked ‘you’re the sound guy right? We have trouble connecting with the Bluetooth speaker in the bar.’ - not really my expertise but I’ll have a look, sure.
It was only because we were standing next to each other checking the Bluetooth devices on our phones and it was on different spots in the list on the respective phone that I realized that the device was named ‘not connected’.
I read this on another outlet, and they had the audacity to blame United for “yet another incident”. This isn’t United’s fault. When you name your bt device “bomb” and the flight attendants ask several times to turn off Bluetooth, turn the damn thing off. Don’t be a shitwanker, and keep it on. I swear. People are such assholes everywhere.
Often (cheap) Bluetooth devices can’t be renamed, can they?
Besides apparently there are even speakers that are named “bomb” straight from the factory. Both this speaker here, that some say is the one the teenager used and even a hama speaker with the default Bluetooth name “Hama bomb 3.0”.
Sorry, but when someone can even buy speakers named bomb from a reputable company, you can’t really blame some teenager. Supposedly (according to what I read) the speakers weren’t in the carry-on and turned themselves on accidentally. Even a stupid teenager who wanted to do this as a prank probably would have gotten cold feet the moment the announcement came and shut the device off if they could, so I don’t think it is impossible to have happened this way.
The attendants asked for the device to be turned off. Cheap bt devices may not be able to be renamed, but they can be turned off. But if they were in the carryon and turned themselves on, and it was a mistake, it’s absolutely forgivable.
Could have been a prank played on a passenger who had no idea, I hope.
Imagine a technologically illiterate person about to get on a flight, had just been visiting with relatives among whom was a mischievous tech-savvy* cousin who wanted to play one last prank.
- At least tech savvy enough to break into cousin’s phone and insert a mischievous Bluetooth word
That’s exactly what I thought. If someone didn’t respond to the repeated requests, perhaps they didn’t know. Wicked prank for someone about to fly.
friendly reminder that what you think is a clever WiFi or Bluetooth name probably isn’t
Nonsense, Your Honor. As evidence I present Promised LAN, Nacho Wifi, and Hurts When IP.
I like the use of the phrase “forced to turn around.” They chose to turn around because somebody had a string of letters on their bluetooth name that they didn’t feel comfortable with. WTF would they do with a passenger in a Che Guevara T shirt?
And it’s not like turning around wouldn’t have made the “bomb” (if there WAS one) to blow up.
8hz_wan_ip
what’s wrong with GIANTPENIS69?
“This_Hotspot_is_DA_BOMB”
I suspect the personality profiles of people with who would make the joke of calling their bluetooth device “bomb” and people who would blow up an airplane full of people is almost diametrically opposite.
You’d think so, but they don’t realize that.
I like how they think turning it around would even change anything??? Like, just dumb.
I suspect it’s a bit more of Security Theatre
My mother used to have a Bluetooth speaker in our car that she took with her. It wasn’t deliberately shaped that way, but with the silhouette, the color, and the volume it produced, we ended up dubbing it ‘the hand grenade’.
After the hand grenade finally broke, my mother got a nice JVC speaker, a long cylinder. It was promptly named ‘the pipe bomb’.
For context, my mother is the most bland, inoffensive Midwest Christian white lady you will ever meet. She has an unusual sense of humor that comes out in the strangest ways. She laughed her ass off all the way through the FNAF games because she thought the animatronics were funny.
I think the TSA just hates people with a personality, period.
One time a TSA guy started to open my wife’s carry-on, which she had packed VERY tightly. She said, “Careful, it might explode.” This got a raised eyebrow.
I like to believe that people with quirky senses of humour see the various social conventions and other broadly treated as “this is the way things are done” patterns of behavior in human societies with a different perspective so often see the silly side of many such things (hence the quirky sense of humour), making them significantly less likely to simply submit to arbitrary orders from those in positions of authority than the average person.
People that don’t just meekly comply are more disliked by “little dictators” - people in positions were they have a little bit of power which they use to push others around to satisfying petty personal needs to feel powerful.
Sounds about right.
Christians are rather offensive people. Especially the ones that force religion and their laws on people.
And she loves her Atheist kid.
Don’t you fucking dare pin that on my mother.
paywalled, btw
before anyone bothers
Just hold down ESC while it loads. Secret l33t haxxor trick, don’t tell anyone.
I tried that on my phone and I couldn’t find the ESC button…
up down up down left right left right A B
No, that’s the code for a screen shot…
Sorryc code not accepted you missed a few pieces
Konami lite!
Multiple Redditors claimed to be on the flight
The real reason for the turn-around
must have smelled so bad
Flight was too heavy
It only had one person onboard: your mom
RIP
They’re lucky there weren’t any power mods, they would have that person banned from 38 different subreddits that post identical content before you could even mutter the 4 letter word!
Ha ha ha.
The real reason is because some jackass turned their Bluetooth speaker on during a flight.
That is one of the most bizarre articles I have ever read. Why in the world are we not allowed to know what the “four letter word” is?
Bomb
Like, maybe, probably? But why are we not allowed to know?
Because there would be a million copycats & air travel would grind to a halt.
I do not think that witty smart-asses who read this kind of articles are fearless enough to be copycats.
The other cheeky asses who would copycat it are probably not the people to be let on a plane. Best case scenario they get on a no-fly list.
There have not been a million copycats to any disruptors of air travel, why would there be in this case? There wouldn’t.
A million.
Love. “Love is in the air” is still under copyright protection and the airline just couldn’t take a chance of being sued…
That’s what I expect it was.
“lmao”?
While the recording does not explicitly confirm the speculation that the Bluetooth name in question was “bomb,” it would certainly make sense given the response from the crew and security personnel on the ground.
Loss
Some days you just can’t get rid of a four-letter word
You, friend, made my day. I never thought I’d see one of my favorite versions of Batman referenced in the wild, on Lemmy of all places. Thank you.
deleted by creator
🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
To stop voids of personality do copycat incidents
It’s kind of click baitey I thought, but if they don’t tell you in the article either what the fuck. It appears it was bomb According to some other commenters that are familiar with some Reddit posts on the issue.
Who says you’re not allowed? The airline probably didn’t disclose which word it actually was, but the article does gives you a suggestion.
Someone named the speaker “bomb”.
I mean, a 12 year old is more likely than not to name a cylindrical boombox a ‘bomb’ and forget about it. Hopefully a sincere apology will suffice instead of a ban or criminal charges.
According to discussion about this elsewhere, there’s a bluetooth speaker model named ‘Bomb’ that defaults to that name, whose website, humorously, has been rate limited due to I’m sure more traffic than they’ve ever had in its entire existence.
That’s fucked up, and honestly negligent on the company’s part. I hope they get sued.
Or we could stop pushing security theatre.
I don’t know, I think airlines should have a responsibility to address potential bomb threats on their commercial flights but that might just be me…
Yes, terrorists are absolutely going around naming their WiFi and Bluetooth devices ‘bomb’.
I think a simple rule of “Better safe than sorry” applies here. It is as if a robber comes with a plastic gun that looks like a real one. Nobody wants to figure out if it is real or not.
Not saying that’s logical, but it’s something the airlines have to act on. They have policies in place that they need to follow, and even if it’s a finer comb than it needs to be it’s better than having no policy at all.
People forget how many skyjackings there were in the 80s and 90s when they say airport security is worthless. Like “How many incidents have they prevented?” “Only all the ones that didn’t happen…”
Honestly, I don’t see any way this could result in criminal charges. It’s a Bluetooth name, not someone actually threatening with a weapon. It’s like walking around with a fake gun. You can’t be charged with anything without actual intent to deceive people, and good luck proving that.
At most, this is a civil charge. The airline might try to get some money out of this person.
Poor chap. Chances are the person was flying economy. No way that person can give enough to recoup even the lawyer fees for the airline
Yep. They might still try it to punish them/set an example. They’re not getting enough out of it to be worth it though, so odds are nothing happens.
I think it depends on the color of your skin.
Many kids with fake guns have been executed for this, because their skin is black
It could absolutely result in a criminal charge. If it results in a criminal conviction or not is another question.
But any prosecutor could make the argument that it’s a terroristic threat.
It’d be a waste of time, but yeah.
You can still be prosecuted for things you didn’t intend, the laws are usually less harsh. Manslaughter vs Murder for instance. I have no idea if a speaker whose name auto sets to bomb is illegal though. Seems dumb if it were
IIRC, all the laws about terrorism require intent.
Naming a Bluetooth device “bomb” could absolutely be intentionally disruptive or threatening.
Im not saying thats provable beyond reasonable doubt in this case.
If you named a Bluetooth speaker “Just an ordinary Bluetooth speaker, nothing to see here”, would that be seen as an implied terrorist threat?
Try naming it “Fuck ICE” and see what happens . . . or don’t, because for whatever reason the special snowflakes of that criminal org get really pissy when members of the public offer them honest and heartfelt feedback.
Just changed my phone’s Bluetooth name to “Not A Bomb”. Hopefully no one is confused by it.
Also wise to spray paint it on your luggage, just so they know.
Now go on a flight with it active and see how well that goes.
Almost every single aspect of airport security before and after you board is written in blood.
Fake theatre blood, usually.
I dont know if you’re trying to troll or if you’re actually that dumb. Regardless, here’s a non exhaustive list of all of this “fake theatre blood”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_airliner_bombing_attacks
particularly in discussions surrounding the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Despite popular belief, the world is a lot bigger than just the US, and any airline from across the world would have done the same upon the discovery of a device called “bomb”
I’m not sure what makes you think I was talking about the US in particular. I’ve never been to the US. Unfortunately, their ludicrous practices have proliferated, probably due to them requiring the same practices at origins of flights headed there.
I’m not sure what makes you think I was talking about the US in particular.
So you did not read the link you sent? Which spoke extensively about the theatrical practises of the US TSA.
Fantastic.
I guess you need to rename all your Bluetooth bombs before flying now. Thanks Obama.
Thanks, O-bomb-a.
🎶 But you turned me out, baby 🎶
It is at least less crazy than the Snapchat incident
https://gizmodo.com/teen-fine-joke-text-taliban-jets-scramble-in-spain-1851192668
We need to stop the crazy paranoia now that 9/11 is 25 years behind us. If someone is going to through the effort to blow up a plane they probably aren’t going to be dumb enough name there bluetooth speaker “bomb”
link
So what I’m getting from this, is that you should use a VPN if you’re using the airports wifi.
Like today’s sponsor…
Fun fact: VPNs don’t do shit
That is nether fun nor a fact.
How so? I know many of the vpns sell your information, what if you have a trustworthy vpn, are you suggesting the traffic is compromised at levels before and after the vpn? I mean I know it is to some degree I just don’t know exactly.
Your traffic is already encrypted with https so yes, the “compromise” here is after the VPN.
I put compromise in quotes since in reality the system is working as designed. You need to use a end to end encrypted messaging app like Signal if you want your communications to stay private.
Your traffic is encrypted, but it is still possible to see what sites you are visiting without a VPN.
With a VPN, all your traffic will just be to the VPN server, and any logs of the sites you visit will sit with the VPN operator.
This is mostly true but I’ll add in some additional info.
Both QUIC and ECH make it harder to easily track what sites are being visited. Not all websites support these but maybe some day they will be standard.
None of this applies to messaging as the messages are being stored on a server unencrypted in most cases.
Thank you for the response I value this information.
For the record, I suspect signal has a back door for the US government.
I can say with a very high degree of confidence that Signal does not have a backdoor. What’s far more likely is that you are a victim of a misinformation campaign. In reality there are many organizations that would prefer you that you use something that isn’t end to end encrypted.
That’s not to say that Signal is flawless as it does have some known weaknesses. The issue is that people tend to fall back to not using encrypted messaging at all which is much worse.
My mistrust is not based in anything new, just in a decades old knowledge that everything is compromised. Everything.
