No credible evidence man hacked airline cockpits
WASHINGTON — U.S. law enforcement officials have no credible evidence that airline cockpits have been hacked from passengers’ seats, contradicting a man who claims he did just that.
While attempting to tamper with flight controls is illegal, investigators don’t actually believe that such attempts could be successful, a senior law enforcement official said Monday. The official asked not to be named because an investigation into a hacker’s claims is continuing.
Chris Roberts, founder of a cybersecurity firm, One World Labs, had his computers seized by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on April 15 in Syracuse, N.Y. He told an FBI agent that he’d altered a plane’s engine thrust through an inflight entertainment system, according to an affidavit.
Roberts was escorted from a United Airlines flight last month after sending tweets bragging that he could deploy the oxygen masks.
His claim that he had affected the actual performance of the plane was made in an FBI affidavit applying for a warrant to search his computer, iPad and other electronic items after the tweeting incident.
The affidavit said Roberts claimed to have overwritten the code on the plane’s Thrust Management Computer while on board a flight, allowing him to operate at least one airplane engine.
“He stated that he successfully commanded the system he had accessed to issue the climb command,” the affidavit said. “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.
“He also stated that he used Vortex software after compromising/ exploiting or ‘hacking’ the airplane’s networks. He used the software to monitor traffic from the cockpit system,” investigators wrote in the warrant that was first published by Canada’s APTN News.
Roberts told investigators he had accessed airplane computer systems “15 to 20” times since 2011, accessing the systems by attaching an Ethernet cable directly to the “Seat Electronic Box” which can be found under some seats, according to Wired Magazine.
Last month a report from the US Government Accountability Office warned of the vulnerability posed by inflight entertainment systems.