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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, based upon a tweet he made about purportedly being able to access the aircraft's EICAS system. Roberts denies the claim. (securityledger.com) المزيد...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
There may be an obvious answer to this but I don's see any scheduled 737 service into KSYR from Chcago. Only regional jets. CRJ, Embraer. UAL 737s connect with regionals in Newark. Possible that tweets originated while on the ground?
A big part of "hacking" is "social engineering" - convincing people that you've done, or are able to, things that seem plausible, regardless of feasibility or ability. It's a great way to get attention, which is pretty much what he was looking for, and got - just maybe not the kind for which he hoped.
For the no so much computer expert or for the computer expert as well, what about if a guy just simply say at loud in the middle of the flight, hey I HAVE A SCREW DRIVER IN MY POCKET AND I AM GOING TO FIDLE AROUND WITH THIS AIRCRAFT AND SEE WHAT CAN I FIND, AND THEN, WHILE IN THE BATHROOM YOU HEAR, I FOUND SOME WIRES THAT THINK CONTROLS THE PLANE SO IM GOING TO PULL ON THEM, what would you Do? Sitting while in the same flight with your family, even if you know or assume that critical flight controls do not go through the the bathroom, you know it's not good, or may do some damage that you were not expected., so may as well restricted until you are sure it is safe, just saying.........
Typical ham-fisted approach I'd expect from US cops.
Why not research and investigate THEN act and detain and search.
Why not research and investigate THEN act and detain and search.
Yes, the old let's wait and see approach has worked really good in the past. The guy tweeted that he was going to attempt to hack into the planes systems. What more research should the "US cops" have done?
Before you start making judgements about what Mr. Roberts can or can't do from the cabin you should probably educate yourselves on the research that is out there in this field and what Mr. Roberts motives really are. I saw Mr. Roberts presentation two years ago at a security conference on this very subject and I can tell you his initial research had nothing to do with WiFi and everything to do with the fact that all of the planes critical and non-critical systems were interconnected. All of the research findings were turned over to the manufacturers at least two years ago and they have not fixed this.