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Security expert pulled off flight by FBI after exposing airline tech vulnerabilities
FoxNews.com ^ | April 17, 2015 | Malia Zimmerman

Posted on 04/17/2015 4:56:47 AM PDT by Timber Rattler

One of the world’s foremost experts on counter-threat intelligence within the cybersecurity industry, who blew the whistle on vulnerabilities in airplane technology systems in a series of recent Fox News reports, has become the target of an FBI investigation himself.

Chris Roberts of the Colorado-based One World Labs, a security intelligence firm that identifies risks before they're exploited, said two FBI agents and two uniformed police officers pulled him off a United Airlines Boeing 737-800 commercial flight Wednesday night just after it landed in Syracuse, and spent the next four hours questioning him about cyberhacking of planes.

The FBI interrogation came just hours after Fox News published a report on Roberts’ research, in which he said: “We can still take planes out of the sky thanks to the flaws in the in-flight entertainment systems. Quite simply put, we can theorize on how to turn the engines off at 35,000 feet and not have any of those damn flashing lights go off in the cockpit.”

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: airlines; chrisroberts; doj; fbi; foxnews; planethreat; planewifi; tsa
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Uncle Sam doesn't like having his incompetence exposed.
1 posted on 04/17/2015 4:56:48 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
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To: Timber Rattler

Again, Truth is the FIRST Thing gone as the US government
attacks its own People for the White Mosque
and its beloved Islamic terrorism.


2 posted on 04/17/2015 5:00:58 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("When a crime is unpunished, the world is unbalanced.")
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To: Timber Rattler

Bingo. Fedgov doesn’t give a damn about safeguarding citizens; its all about covering up the incompetence of the Federal Government.

FedGov arrests this guy and treats him like a terrorist. Unbelievable. Well, actually totally believable considering Constitutional Rights are no longer operative.

I’m surprised the FBI didn’t assassinate this guy on the spot. I guess that shows how much more enlightened this government is compared to the ChiComs.


3 posted on 04/17/2015 5:04:39 AM PDT by Flick Lives ("I can't believe it's not Fascism!")
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To: Timber Rattler

Cheaper than paying him to come to DC and instruct them how it’s done.


4 posted on 04/17/2015 5:06:35 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To win the country back, we need to be as mean as the libs say we are.)
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To: Timber Rattler

When I first heard the story, I wondered why they were publicizing it. It sounds like this guy didn’t go the authorities but went to the media. He had an obligation to go to them 1st.


5 posted on 04/17/2015 5:08:10 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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To: nuconvert
He had an obligation to go to them 1st.

Kinda like the guy who landed his gyro-copter on the White house lawn after calling the secret service, FBI etc. The guy had a live video feed of him doing it in real time.

Our government is a complete and utter disaster.
6 posted on 04/17/2015 5:12:03 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: nuconvert
He had an obligation to go to them 1st.

For some, going to the government 1st may be the right thing. For others, who don't trust the Federal Government maybe not. But I don't see any obligation.

7 posted on 04/17/2015 5:17:36 AM PDT by suijuris
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To: Timber Rattler; LucyT; Nachum; null and void
Did anyone notice this??

“We can still take planes out of the sky thanks to the flaws in the in-flight entertainment systems. Quite simply put, we can theorize on how to turn the engines off at 35,000 feet and not have any of those damn flashing lights go off in the cockpit.”

Wouldn't have anything to do with planes falling from the sky, or high-performance autos hitting trees, all carrying opponents of the regime, now would it?

8 posted on 04/17/2015 5:17:53 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: Timber Rattler
I am sure he is being harassed on the theory that he created those vulnerabilities. After all,the government didn't know about them until he told them therefore they were not there until he told them.
9 posted on 04/17/2015 5:23:51 AM PDT by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: suijuris

If he had gone to the government first he would have been told to keep his mouth shut on pain of arrest and imprisonment or worse and the government would then have ignored his information. What the public doesn’t know won’t hurt the government.


10 posted on 04/17/2015 5:26:33 AM PDT by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: nuconvert
When I first heard the story, I wondered why they were publicizing it. It sounds like this guy didn’t go the authorities but went to the media. He had an obligation to go to them 1st.

If he had gone to the government first, they would have instantly had a judge impose a gag order on him, on the reasoning that talking about the vulnerabilities would compromise "national security". Then the government would have sat on the data.

Going to media FIRST ensures that it will be taken seriously.

11 posted on 04/17/2015 5:28:31 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: arthurus

The news this morning is all about a “homegrown” terrorist who went to Syria for training with ISIS. The problem is that he isn’t “homegrown”, he’s a Somalian immigrant that our beloved government imported to America.

Even if we assume that there is no malice in the way our government behaves, the absolute and utter incompetence means they can’t be trusted.

To quote Jim Trafficant “Our intelligence agencies could throw themselves at the ground and miss.”


12 posted on 04/17/2015 5:30:28 AM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: Diogenesis

Every agency of government has been politicized...


13 posted on 04/17/2015 5:34:12 AM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks ("If he were working for the other side, what would he be doing differently ?")
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To: Old Sarge

This is all so much nonsense. Putting the government aside (they botch everything except the theft of liberty), why would any aircraft manufacturer not harden their aircraft? All those entertainment systems are third party. There is no access into the FMS or aircraft systems. Power, that is it.

This guy is a blow hard.


14 posted on 04/17/2015 5:54:12 AM PDT by Tzfat
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To: Timber Rattler

[The FBI interrogation came just hours after Fox News published a report on Roberts’ research, in which he said: “We can still take planes out of the sky thanks to the flaws in the in-flight entertainment systems. Quite simply put, we can theorize on how to turn the engines off at 35,000 feet and not have any of those damn flashing lights go off in the cockpit.”]

you can beat that the terrorists of the world are reading this report and looking into...just like they took notice on the small plane flying into the White House in 1994 and the truck bombings of the World Trade Centers in 1993...


15 posted on 04/17/2015 5:58:06 AM PDT by BCW (ARMIS EXPOSCERE PACEM)
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To: Timber Rattler
I used to work for a federal agency in DC. About 400 employees. I discovered that most employees including the Director, had read shares on their C drives allowing access to everything. I sent a email to the entire agency to remind people to be careful of their open shares.

The response was that the second in command of the agency ordered MY network and email accounts to be disabled. Took me a month to get them restored.
16 posted on 04/17/2015 6:11:34 AM PDT by Calvin Cooledge
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To: Timber Rattler; COUNTrecount; Nowhere Man; FightThePower!; C. Edmund Wright; jacob allen; ...

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

The biggest killer of mankind

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

17 posted on 04/17/2015 6:11:41 AM PDT by null and void (He who kills a tyrant (i.e. an usurper) to free his country is praised and rewarded ~ Thomas Aquinas)
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To: Tzfat

Ditto. You can’t shut off the engines via the entertainment system.


18 posted on 04/17/2015 6:13:44 AM PDT by aviator (Armored Pest Control)
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To: PapaBear3625
Like or else photo Brokenthumbsup-1_zpsf060d73b.png
19 posted on 04/17/2015 6:14:02 AM PDT by null and void (He who kills a tyrant (i.e. an usurper) to free his country is praised and rewarded ~ Thomas Aquinas)
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To: suijuris; PapaBear3625; cripplecreek

“Chris Roberts of the Colorado-based One World Labs, a security intelligence firm that identifies risks before they’re exploited”

This is what the guy does for a living. It’s his job to go to the authorities 1st.

“One World Labs is a security intelligence firm that identifies risks before they’re exploited.

We offer access to the world’s largest database of dark content and provide comprehensive assessment and consulting services to protect corporations, government and non-profit organizations.”


20 posted on 04/17/2015 6:14:27 AM PDT by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
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