Cybersecurity Researcher Hacks Plane

Last month, a security researcher was kicked off a flight and detained after tweeting about hacking a plane, according to an FBI warrant.

Well-known US hacker and security researcher at Denver-based security intelligence firm One World Labs, Chris Roberts, has told FBI agents that he took momentary control of an airplane, mid-flight. Previously, it was believed that Roberts had not taken control of the plane, just suggesting that it could be done. Roberts was pulled from a United Airlines flight in Syracuse on April 15th after tweeting: “Find myself on a 737/800, lets see Box-IFE-ICE-SATCOM, ? Shall we start playing with EICAS messages? “PASS OXYGEN ON” Anyone ? :)” The phrase “PASS OXYGEN ON” drew authorities’ attention as it could refer to the oxygen masks in the passenger cabin. Later, Roberts tweeted, “Lesson from this evening, don’t mention planes. The Feds ARE listening, nice crew in Syracuse, left there naked of electronics.” Roberts told Wired that he had not actually taken control of the plane in an interview following the incident.

Now, according to a warrant obtained by Canada’s APTN, Roberts had taken control of the aircraft. “He stated that he thereby caused one of the airplane engines to climb resulting in a lateral or sideways movement of the plane during one of these flights,” wrote FBI Special Agent Mark Hurley in the search warrant application. “He also stated that he used Vortex software after comprising/exploiting or `hacking’ the airplane’s networks. He used the software to monitor traffic from the cockpit system.” Following this report, Roberts took to Twitter to defend himself, saying, “Over last 5 years my only interest has been to improve aircraft security. Given the current situation I’ve been advised against saying much.”

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