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It’s not just some fitness smartwatch, as the linked Tweet might lead you to think: > Pilots told the tech website that they had not been able to download new

It’s not just some fitness smartwatch, as the linked Tweet might lead you to think: > Pilots told the tech website that they had not been able to download new Garmin software with up-to-date versions of the aviation database, which is a legal requirement for flying. The Garmin Pilot app, which is used to schedule and plan flights, was also hit by the attack. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23937097 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23937097 PS in case you’re not into aviation - Garmin is used in smaller aircraft, not airliners but this is still a significant disruption - smaller planes and helicopters carry out important roles such as firefighting, heli ambulance, flying doctors services (e.g. in Australia) rescue ops etc.

t0mas88 6y ago
Garmin has a lot of market share in small piston / hobby flying planes, but they're also big in small to mid size private jets and turboprops. More and more are using the Garmin G1000 and G3000 cockpit or older models upgrading from traditional instruments to the G600. In those cases it's not uncommon to use Garmin Pilot + Jeppesen for the good integration with the onboard systems when loading flightplans etc. So this outage could be painful for some corporate flight departments and air taxi companies as well. Luckily you can also print the charts without that much trouble and fly like the old days.
- stevehawk 6y ago
  But I bet ForeFlight sales just spiked
btgeekboy 6y ago
FlyGarmin is already back up. And it’s not a huge deal in my opinion. In addition to being only smaller operators, dbs don’t expire and roll over on the same day. New releases are available early. Absolute worst case, if you were flying IFR and it was worth the expense, you could go to Jeppesen and buy a 1-off update for your avionics. Garmin Pilot could be replaced by a ForeFlight trial, etc. It’s not like Garmin goes down, planes are grounded.

t0mas88 6y ago

Garmin has a lot of market share in small piston / hobby flying planes, but they're also big in small to mid size private jets and turboprops. More and more are using the Garmin G1000 and G3000 cockpit or older models upgrading from traditional instruments to the G600. In those cases it's not uncommon to use Garmin Pilot + Jeppesen for the good integration with the onboard systems when loading flightplans etc. So this outage could be painful for some corporate flight departments and air taxi companies as well. Luckily you can also print the charts without that much trouble and fly like the old days.

stevehawk 6y ago
But I bet ForeFlight sales just spiked

btgeekboy 6y ago

FlyGarmin is already back up. And it’s not a huge deal in my opinion. In addition to being only smaller operators, dbs don’t expire and roll over on the same day. New releases are available early. Absolute worst case, if you were flying IFR and it was worth the expense, you could go to Jeppesen and buy a 1-off update for your avionics. Garmin Pilot could be replaced by a ForeFlight trial, etc. It’s not like Garmin goes down, planes are grounded.