Just as I was browsing a new and important document on cybersecurity, I stumbled on an example of how careless online behavior might create real-world risks.
On Tuesday, one of the best informed websites on airplane spotting in the Netherlands carried details of the flight Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, would take to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport a day later. Scramble.nl, the website concerned, does a great job of informing its readers of upcoming interesting flights, but I guess there is such a thing as too much information.
Yes, those are details of Netanyahu's flight to Amsterdam under the link above. While other forum users claimed such details were "All Highly classified", YS11 saw no harm in posting this information, which is obviously sensitive in nature.
Now, let's just spend a few minutes contemplating what someone with bad intentions could do with these details.
Working with a site like flightradar24 or planefinder, it's quite easy to establish which runway Netanyahu's plane is most likely to land on.
For any bad guy this could be vital information, which is exactly why it should be kept secret. A terrorist could position himself miles from the airport and its security perimeter, but right below the approach path and successfully take down the aircraft with a missile.
Seems far-fetched? Ask the Israelis.
Back in 2002, an Arkia 757 was almost shot down by Islamic radicals right after departure from Mombasa, Kenya. Obviously, acquiring an anti-aircraft weapon is difficult, but not impossible as the Kenyan attack demonstrates.
Just as I'm reviewing this blogpost for publication, it turns out that Netanyahu's plane is not visible on any of the real-time flight tracking sites. Thus a bad guy would need a scanner and a good idea of the routing of different approach paths leading to Schiphol.
How could we track this flight? In this regard, the Israel Airports Authority provides an unexpected helping hand.
Let's recap.
By now we know Netanyahu's expected arrival time (1305), type of aircraft (Boeing 757), aircraft registration (4X-EBU) and parking spot at Schiphol (Y71). What we don't know yet is his flight number. Knowing his flight number would make keeping track of his flight with a radio scanner a lot easier. Can we find out? Yes we can, with a little nerdism..
Schiphol.nl (the official Amsterdam airport website) shows no scheduled flights arriving from Tel Aviv around 13.00. El Al's website (keep in mind, 4X-EBU is an El Al plane) is of no use either.
Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport website (maintained by the Israel Airports Authority), gives us an idea. All departures to Amsterdam displayed on this site are easily identifiable as regular passenger flights. KLM 462 and El Al 337 are normal flights between the two cities. However, there is one extraordinary departure to Amsterdam mentioned on Ben Gurion Airport's website. Its scheduled departure time is 0900 (local time) and operates with flight number LY235.
A quick calculation leads to the conclusion that this might very well be the flight that brings Prime Minister Netanyahu to Holland. With a flight duration of approximately 5 hours, LY 235 should land in Amsterdam right around 1300 CET. Exactly the time indicated in the scramble forum. What's more, El Al typically uses a flight number starting with a 3 for all flights to destinations in Western Europe. This particular plane operates with a 200 series flight number, suggesting it is not one of the regular scheduled flights. The fact that it's not mentioned on either Schiphol's website, nor on El Al's site as a scheduled flight makes me feel that this could very well be the actual plane carrying Netanyahu to Holland.
Using this information, any aviation geek with bad intentions and specialized weapons could do real harm. Made easy by information posted on the internet. As simple as that.
Is this blogpost important, or *breaking* or anything? Not really. Public visits by dignitaries always carry some degree of risk that security services and police should mitigate. But just posting obviously sensitive and restricted information like this in an open forum seems like a very bad idea in my opinion.
NOTICE: I managed to compile this information about 15 hours prior to Netanyahu's scheduled arrival in Amsterdam. Obviously, I do not want anyone to be put at risk as a consequence of my blogging, therefore I decided to refrain from posting this piece until Netanyahu landed safely in the Netherlands.
Even though some might interpret this blogpost as a call for not posting information on the web, I actually hope it spurs some people to think more critically of what they decide to put online.
Obviously, it would be impossible to reduce the risk to any high-profile visitor to zero. However, that's not an excuse for posting sensitive information online without any particular reason.
There is absolutely no denying that there is a clear and ongoing threat to Netanyahu's life by a number of radical groups. These groups are not geographically confined to the holy land, but extend beyond and into Europe, as well. It's about time some people took note.
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