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Hacker on a Plane: FBI Seizes Researcher’s Gear

posted by martyb on Sunday April 19 2015, @04:18AM   Printer-friendly

AnonTechie writes us with a story that appeared in the security ledger: Hacker on a Plane: FBI Seizes Researcher’s Gear:

The FBI seized equipment from noted security researcher Chris Roberts on Wednesday, alleging that Roberts may have tampered with the systems aboard a United flight to Chicago. Roberts denies the claim.

Chris Roberts (a.k.a sidragon1), a leading researcher delving into the security of airplanes, was pulled off a plane in Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday by the FBI and questioned, apparently over concerns that he attempted to hack into critical systems aboard a United flight earlier in the day.

His laptop and a variety of external storage devices were confiscated by the FBI, which said it wanted to determine whether Roberts, an authority on security vulnerabilities in modern aircraft, may have accessed sensitive systems on a flight from Colorado to Chicago earlier in the day.

Roberts is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of One World Labs, a security research firm.

In response to mentions of his earlier research on Twitter, Roberts, using the @sidragon1 handle, had tweeted about his ability to hack into in-cabin control systems on the Boeing 737.

“Find myself on a 737/800, lets see Box-IFE-ICE-SATCOM, ? Shall we start playing with EICAS messages? “PASS OXYGEN ON” Anyone ? :)”

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 19 2015, @11:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 19 2015, @11:59PM (#172971)

    It's like that Eminem song 'Rap Game' only it's about the assinine 'security scene' amd manuevering around in it. Alternately it is about 'outsmarting' but that's not a fair interpretation anymore - like bringing nukes to a shootout and your own camera crew. Nice attempt at a cover but I had to say it like it is. Almost everybody now seems to be in it for 'the game', which often also means inventing bigger and worse enemies out of thin air these days.