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El Reg reports:
The FBI has accused a security researcher of hacking into the entertainment system of a United Airlines plane mid-flight, before causing the aircraft to temporarily fly "sideways".
Infosec bod Chris Roberts allegedly made that audacious claim to Feds' special agent Mark Hurley, who subsequently applied for a search warrant to examine Roberts' seized electronic devices.
Thirteen items, including thumb drives, a MacBook Pro laptop and an iPad Air were confiscated from Roberts on 15 April this year, after the researcher exited a United Airline flight in Syracuse, New York, according to the Feds' affidavit (PDF).
Roberts, who founded One World Labs, has been quizzed twice by the FBI over the course of the past few months.
He apparently told the Feds that he had hacked into the inflight entertainment systems of Airbus and Boeing aircraft roughly 15 to 20 times between 2011 and 2014.
A story from the BBC has a different perspective on the situation:
Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey University told the BBC he found it "difficult to believe" a passenger could access and manipulate flight control systems from a plug socket on an aircraft seat.
"Flight systems are typically kept physically separate, as are any safety critical systems," he said.
"I can imagine only that someone has misunderstood something in the conversation between the researcher and the FBI, someone is exaggerating to make a point, or, it is actually possible and the aircraft manufacturers have some urgent work to do."/blockquote
The researcher in question, Chris Roberts said on twitter, "There's a whole five years of stuff that the affidavit incorrectly compressed into 1 paragraph... lots to untangle".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 18 2015, @09:48PM
the father of a close friend of mine was a USAF transport plane pilot - C-141 and C-5.
My friend told me that it was SOP for his father and his crew to set the autopilot then fall asleep on long flights. That is the crew all sleeps at the same time, no one stands watch.
I was incredulous about this. "What happens if the autopilot fails?"
"That's impossible - there are FIVE computers in those jets!"
That was quite a long time ago. My friend is in the Coast Guard now. He does a lot of work with PLCs and Ladder Logic. I asked him whether they used HMI/SCADA as the Canadian Coast Guard does. Ironically, he regards it as delusional hook a SCADA system up to a PLC.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]