A mobile phone application costing less than £2 which tracks the precise location of passenger aircraft in the sky is a serious terrorist threat and should be banned, according to a security expert.The app, of course, is Pinkfoot's new 'Plane Finder AR'. I downloaded it myself on Friday, and was having fun with it in between rainshowers.
I told my mother about it and her immediate reaction was 'Couldn't terrorists use it to shoot down a plane?!'
Maybe she writes for the 'Mail'...
The program, developed by a British firm and sold for just £1.79 in the online Apple store, was last night labelled an ‘aid to terrorists’ amid fears it could be used to target an aircraft with a surface-to-air missile, or to direct another plane on to a collision course.Blimey! There's an app for that..?!?
Conservative MP Patrick Mercer, former chairman of the Parliamentary Counter Terrorism sub-committee, said: ‘Anything that makes it easier for our enemies to find targets is madness. The Government must look at outlawing the marketing of such equipment.’The government doesn't seem to be too bothered, unlike its excitable MPs...
A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: ‘This application might be new but the ability to track aircraft isn’t.’Indeed. And I note that the 'Fail' doesn't name their 'expert'. Clearly, if he doesn't realise that most missile systems come complete with their own targeting and tracking measures, he isn't worth a candle...
7 comments:
Liam Fox said:
"Cameroon must respond quickly to this new threat by moving all our airports to secret locations." He was also overheard to mutter "I love politics."
This could lead to mobile phones being banned altogether. The threat should be relished, not derided by technical incompetents, and all mobiles banned overnight. My new factory, making false mobiles with exploding earpieces, should do good trade with anti-terrorist organisations and those too far gone on the road to oblivion through over use of existing annoy our neighbour phones.
Today, terrorists will target most of Europe by drawing circles round countries in biro. The authorities will discover this method is as accurate in locating national airports as android phone plane tracking in targeting planes and ban the biro.
"Clearly, if he doesn't realise that most missile systems come complete with their own targeting and tracking measures, he isn't worth a candle..."
Well, quite. Otherwise it's chucking bottle rockets in the general direction.
But, but, but, Daddy, how did we shoot down all the Germans and win the Battle of Britain when they didn't have any iPhones then?
Uhhh, they did have 'em, son. William Churchill invented them but they were only given to the RAF.
And the guns on the ground as well?
Uh, yeah, them too. That goes without saying, doesn't it?.
But did the Germans get them afterwards?
Well, yeah. I mean, we've all got 'em now, haven't we, eh?
No, I mean right afterwards? Because Grandad showed me this film called Dambusters and the Germans shot down some of the planes.
Uhh, their spies must have nicked it from us. Alright? Now stop asking about it.
Okay, daddy..... Daddy?
What?
In the film the man had a dog called Ni...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!
Or you could go to this site:
www dot flightradar24 dot com
and see the location of every flight in the whole of continental Europe in real time, with precise height direction and speed info. As the guy said, this is nothing new.
And RadarVertuel.com which uses the same system. So that means ALL personal computers must be taken away from us, as well...
As was mentioned in the article these are not "Real Time" observations, but artificially delayed, so a potential terrorist is not going to be able to make much use of them.
If you wanted to take out a specific aircraft you would just sit near the airport with a readily available airband scanner, and pair of binoculars....
There's a similar system for commercial shipping - how about targeting a 250,000 ton supertanker?
"The threat should be relished, not derided by technical incompetents, and all mobiles banned overnight. "
Probably best not to give them ideas! :)
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRGH!"
Still waiting to find out if it's going to be scrapped in the remake!
"As the guy said, this is nothing new."
But the 'Fail' does so love a scare story with technology.
"There's a similar system for commercial shipping - how about targeting a 250,000 ton supertanker?"
Slower and easier to hit than a jumbo at 6000 ft!
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