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, […]
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.