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posted by cmn32480 on Monday May 18 2015, @05:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the back-to-horse-and-buggy-we-go dept.

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".

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2015, @07:07AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 19 2015, @07:07AM (#184955)

    I know this seems counter intuitive but its one of the first things you will learn in pilot school.

    What kind of pilot school?

    The flight gear (simulator) manual states exactly what you do, *for propeller aircraft*. It then goes on to say that it's the other way around for jets.

    (No explanation as to why, but I suspect that it's related to the amount of thrust available and/or how quickly the engine(s) can throttle up).

    So, until you say otherwise, I'm going to guess that your knowledge is about propeller aircraft, while the article likely is a jet liner.