Gulliver | Airline security

Hackers of the world: United

Hackers who uncovered a flaw in United Airlines' IT have been rewarded with 1m air miles each

By B.R.

FOR companies, there are two strategies for dealing with people who uncover flaws in their IT security: a right way and a wrong way. Our leader on hacking this week tells of the approach that Volkswagen took when a group of academics informed it that they had uncovered a vulnerability in a remote-car-key system: the firm slapped a court injunction on them. It is difficult to conceive of an approach more likely to be counter-productive.

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