Flight diverted after flash drive found in bathroom

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http://www.news24.com/World/News/Flight-diverted-after-flash-drive-found-in-bathroom-20140106

Kansas City - An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing at Kansas City International Airport after a flash drive was found in a bathroom.

Airport spokesperson Joe McBride says the discovery was made on Sunday afternoon as Flight 24 was headed from San Francisco International Airport to John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

McBride says the Boeing 767 was taken to an area away from the terminal and was searched. The 227 passengers and crew members were evacuated.

McBride says it is "a new day and age since 9/11" and that officials take precautions if something is deemed suspicious.

- AP
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Paranoid - or just very astute?
I'd be laughing If I hadn't read this a few days ago

Cash machines raided with infected USB sticks


Researchers have revealed how cyber-thieves sliced into cash machines in order to infect them with malware earlier this year.

The criminals cut the holes in order to plug in USB drives that installed their code onto the ATMs.

Details of the attacks on an unnamed European bank's cash dispensers were presented at the hacker-themed Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg.

The crimes also appear to indicate the thieves mistrusted each other.

The two researchers who detailed the attacks have asked for their names not to be published

Access code
The thefts came to light in July after the lender involved noticed several its ATMs were being emptied despite their use of safes to protect the cash inside.

After surveillance was increased, the bank discovered the criminals were vandalising the machines to use the infected USB sticks.

USB stick
The malware was installed onto the ATMs via USB sticks
Once the malware had been transferred they patched the holes up. This allowed the same machines to be targeted several times without the hack being discovered.

To activate the code at the time of their choosing the thieves typed in a 12-digit code that launched a special interface.

Analysis of software installed onto four of the affected machines demonstrated that it displayed the amount of money available in each denomination of note and presented a series of menu options on the ATM's screen to release each kind.

The researchers said this allowed the attackers to focus on the highest value banknotes in order to minimise the amount of time they were exposed.

But the crimes' masterminds appeared to be concerned that some of their gang might take the drives and go solo.

To counter this risk the software required the thief to enter a second code in response to numbers shown on the ATM's screen before they could release the money.

The correct response varied each time and the thief could only obtain the right code by phoning another gang member and telling them the numbers displayed.

If they did nothing the machine would return to its normal state after three minutes.

The researchers added the organisers displayed "profound knowledge of the target ATMs" and had gone to great lengths to make their malware code hard to analyse.

However, they added that the approach did not extend to the software's filenames - the key one was called hack.bat.
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F1 Fan said:
Overkill perhaps?

Better safe than sorry I guess.
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So it's ok for every single passanger to have one in their pockets/purse but heaven forbids it falls out of your pocket onto the floor while taking a dump and somebody spots it. Hell you can have 10 of the things in your pocket.

Stupid I reckon.

The terrorists have won!
 
More to the story.

An unattended flash drive found in a bathroom on a New York-bound American Airlines flight caused a bomb scare, which led to the plane's emergency landing in Missouri this afternoon.

The flash drive, it turns out, actually was a small camera disguised as a flash drive.
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ponder said:
So it's ok for every single passanger to have one in their pockets/purse but heaven forbids it falls out of your pocket onto the floor while taking a dump and somebody spots it. Hell you can have 10 of the things in your pocket.

Stupid I reckon.

The terrorists have won!
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Well, look at the flip side. If a flash was reported seen, then subsequently something happened to the plane, everyone would be asking as to why there wasn't better security.

It probably did fall out of a pocket and Im not sure how a flash drive could potentially bring about any harm, but surely they would know better than us. Either way, you have no basis for calling it stupid as you would not have been liable to the consequences either way.
 
Ok. Not as sophisticated as I thought. But hell yeah.

Camera 'disguised as a Flash drive' taped to wall of airplane bathroom sparks bomb scare and emergency landing in Missouri

An unattended flash drive found in a bathroom on a New York-bound American Airlines flight caused a bomb scare, which led to the plane's emergency landing in Missouri this afternoon.
The flash drive, it turns out, actually was a small camera disguised as a flash drive.
The American Airlines flight, which originated in San Francisco and was scheduled to land at New York's JFK airport, was forced to land at Kansas City International Airport about 1:30 p.m. after a passenger found the tiny device taped to a wall in the plane's bathroom.
After the emergency landing, the plane was isolated to one side of the airport as officials investigated the mysterious flash drive.

Additionally, each of the plane's 227 passengers and crew members were ushered off of the aircraft and loaded onto buses as officials investigated the plane.
A flash drive is a tiny piece of computer equipment designed to store and transfer data. It is not an explosive device, or an item banned by the National Transportation Safety Board.

After an extensive search of the aircraft, bomb and arson investigators concluded that there was no bomb. Rather, authorities found, the device was actually a small camera disguised as a flash drive and stashed in the bathroom.

It remains unclear who planted the device in the bathroom.
Passengers and crew members were able to re-board the aircraft at about 3 p.m., according to KCTV.
Last month, Kansas City experienced another bomb scare when someone called a bomb threat into its City Hall. In that case, authorities found nothing suspicious after an extensive search of the building.
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'I've had enough with these mother****ing perverts on this mother****ing plane.'
 
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after a passenger found the tiny device taped to a wall in the plane's bathroom.
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okay so given that it was a camera, some perv had taped it on the wall so that he could get pics of people using an airline toilet?
 
The lesson here is if you find a flash drive on an aircraft do not hand it in. Unless of course you want to screw with the security circus nutters.

ponder said:
The terrorists have won!
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Of course they have. Through a few incidents they have managed to soundly thrash supposedly free democracies. In fact they've now been given yet another way to mess with these paranoid states.

F1 Fan said:
but surely they would know better than us. Either way, you have no basis for calling it stupid as you would not have been liable to the consequences either way.
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Who, the people so paranoid they should be committed? So yes, it is stupid.
 
noxibox said:
The lesson here is if you find a flash drive on an aircraft do not hand it in. Unless of course you want to screw with the security circus nutters.


Of course they have. Through a few incidents they have managed to soundly thrash supposedly free democracies. In fact they've now been given yet another way to mess with these paranoid states.


Who, the people so paranoid they should be committed? So yes, it is stupid.
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Find a flash drive lying on the floor of the bathroom - either become the proud owner of a new flash drive (depending on size), or hand it over to the flight attendants.
Find a flash drive taped to the wall of the bathroom... Clean pants, then call the flight attendant and ask to be seated in the tail of the plane.
 
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