America is now, belatedly, moving away from random screening, which led to absurdly rigorous treatment of obviously harmless categories like small children, veterans and even the planes' own pilots, to a computerised system that checks identities and assesses potential risk.

ECONOMIST: Disasters

In a presentation at the Black Hat and Defcon security conference in July, for instance, French security researcher Andre Costin presented vulnerabilities in the next-generation air traffic control system known as ADS-B that he said would allow a hacker with a software-defined radio to track and even spoof planes in the sky, potentially creating dangerous distractions for pilots.

FORBES: DARPA-Funded Radio HackRF Aims To Be A $300 Wireless Swiss Army Knife For Hackers

The plane hasn't been flown yet, of course, and the military may never decide to buy these planes even if they do work.

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