Why You Can’t Pen Test an Airplane — AI Cybersecurity for Aviation

2026-01-24

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Can you really hack an airplane? And if so, how do you test for it without grounding the fleet for a year?In Episode 28 of Built This Week, Sam Nadler and Jordan Metzner sit down with Eero Salih, CTO of Syberian, to explore how AI is transforming cybersecurity for commercial aviation.We start with a live demo — a flight ops cyber radar Sam built to surface real-time security risks across airline operations. Then Eero breaks down what Syberian actually does: building digital twins of aircraft systems to run risk a...

Can you really hack an airplane? And if so, how do you test for it without grounding the fleet for a year?

In Episode 28 of Built This Week, Sam Nadler and Jordan Metzner sit down with Eero Salih, CTO of Syberian, to explore how AI is transforming cybersecurity for commercial aviation.

We start with a live demo — a flight ops cyber radar Sam built to surface real-time security risks across airline operations. Then Eero breaks down what Syberian actually does: building digital twins of aircraft systems to run risk assessments without ever touching the physical plane.

This is critical because traditional penetration testing would ground an aircraft for up to a year for recertification. Syberian's AI-powered approach analyzes over 100 technical documents to map every computer system on board — from avionics to entertainment to crew scheduling — and identify vulnerabilities before they become incidents.

We also discuss:

Why cyber attacks on aviation are now classified as safety threats

New 2026 regulations forcing airlines to comply with stricter cybersecurity standards

How small teams are replacing developers with AI agent managers

The tools Syberian uses: Claude Code, Windsurf, Anthropic, and Gemini

Why Google and Anthropic are rejecting ads while OpenAI explores them

An ex-Amazon exec who vibe-coded a full CRM replacement in 72 hours

No hype.
No theory.
Just what happens when you put AI in charge of protecting critical infrastructure.

New episodes every Friday.

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TIMESTAMPS
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(0:00) Why you can't hack-test an airplane
(0:45) Episode 28 kickoff and guest introduction
(1:30) Live demo: Flight ops cyber radar dashboard
(3:00) Analyzing real-time security threats across airline systems
(4:30) What Syberian actually does (in plain English)
(6:00) Why physical penetration testing grounds planes for a year
(7:30) Using AI to build digital twins of aircraft systems
(8:15) Hiring managers, not developers — AI agents do the coding
(9:30) Tools of the trade: Claude Code, Windsurf, Anthropic, Gemini
(10:00) New 2026 aviation cybersecurity regulations explained
(11:00) How cyber attacks became classified as safety threats
(12:30) The ripple effects: baggage weight, fuel calculations, pilot tablets
(13:30) Who are Syberian's customers? Airlines, private jets, and more
(14:55) AI News: Google and Anthropic reject ads in chatbots
(16:30) Why Anthropic's no-ads stance matters for enterprise customers
(17:30) Amazon exec vibe-codes full CRM replacement in 72 hours
(18:30) Why vibe coding works for internal tools but not production
(19:15) Final thoughts and closing