The Rooster
"Okeydoke"
May 17, 2015
By Dylan Tweney
Security researcher (click here) Chris Roberts got kicked off a United flight last month for tweeting a joke about hacking into its electronic control systems.
Now the FBI alleges, in an affidavit for a search warrant, it was no joke. In fact, the FBI claims, Roberts actually did such a thing, causing a plane he was on to drift sideways while in flight.
“He stated that he successfully commanded the system he had accessed to issue the ‘CLB’ or climb command. 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,” the affidavit claims.
Roberts has been quick to deny that this was the case.
“Over last 5 years my only interest has been to improve aircraft security…given the current situation I’ve been advised against saying much,” Roberts said on Twitter. He followed up: “Sorry it’s so generic, but there’s a whole 5 years of stuff that the affidavit incorrectly compressed into 1 paragraph….lots to untangle.”...
Thank you, Mr. Roberts. I have been saying this for awhile now. Thank you so much. This directly relates to Fly By Wire, the Superjumbos that can't fly without computers. When the dependency of computers is out of the question, that changes the profile of any flying fleet including the USA Air Force. Thank you.
