Gogo ’s inflight Wi - Fi service is pretty much your only choice when it come to surfing the internet in the sky above . Which means that they arefree to give you shitty overhaul at even shittier pricesall they desire . And now , according to one Google engineer , they ’re also fiddle tight and light with your online security . The interrogation is — why ?
In traditional man - in - the - midsection ( MITM ) attacks , the assailant will intercept the data being sent between two different organisation , allowing it to act as the middle human beings ( duh ) . If the certificate for the site you ’re trying to pass does n’t tot up up ( because it ’s being signed by the MITM ) , your browser app will usually warn you — though many often disregard this warning . Fortunately , Google engineer Adrienne Porter Felt did not .
hey @Gogo , why are you put out * .google.com certification on your planes?pic.twitter.com / UmpIQ2pDaU
— Adriana Porter Felt ( @apf)January 2 , 2015
After connect to Gogo ’s inflight wireless , Felt noticed a little flushed “ x ” in her speech bar , indicating something was n’t right . As you’re able to see from the tweet above , Gogo itself was signing the certificate — not Google . This is a Brobdingnagian trouble .
First and firstly , by mislead client in this way , Gogo is doing aside with a enormously necessary layer of security system , and in doing so , afford the same option to anyone else on the internet with malicious intent . The fact that Gogo has access to all your data is tough already , but it ’s inconceivable to know who else might be making use of the now gaping security holes . But what ’s more , according to Tech Dirt :
[ Gogo ] loves to datamine and it definitely makes an crusade to “ shape ” traffic by cut short use of data - heavy site . It also , as Steven Johns at Neowin points out , is an enthusiastic player in law enforcement and investigatory activities , die above and beyond what ’s in reality demand of serving providers .
So while Gogo might utilize its willingness to datamine for cooperate with government official and “ third company ” as the rationality for its questionable tactics , that ’s still no understanding to totally discombobulate customer security out the window .
People on Twitterhave also speculated that Gogo might be doing this as a means of throttling data to throttle dealings on its networks , but of grade , there are other , less life-threatening direction of doing that , as well .
https://twitter.com/embed/status/551133041503260672
We ’ve reached out to Gogo for remark , and will update as shortly as we take heed back . For now , though , if you ’re vaporize , credibly best to remain offline . Who knows who might be peeking in . [ Neowin , Techdirt ]
Update 2:30pm :
Gogoreleased the following affirmation :
Gogo takes our customer ’s seclusion very earnestly and we are attached to bringing the best net experience to the sky . right on now , Gogo is cultivate on many room to bring more bandwidth to an aircraft . Until then , we have submit that we do n’t patronize various streaming picture sites and utilize several techniques to set / auction block picture cyclosis . One of the late off - the - ledge solutions that we use proxies insure picture dealings to barricade it . Whatever technique we use to shape bandwidth , It impact only some secure video cyclosis sites and does not affect general secure internet traffic . These technique are used to assure that everyone who wants to get at the Internet on a Gogo equipped plane will have a consistent browsing experience .
We can assure customers that no user information is being garner when any of these techniques are being used . They are simply ways of cause sure all passenger who need to enter the Internet in flight have a good experience .
In other words , we know this sure look shady but it ’s not , PROMISE .
gogoWifi
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture tidings in your inbox daily .
intelligence from the future tense , hand over to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
