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Tweets have been getting people in trouble for a while now, whether they were intended as jokes, or legitimate statements, but often it's because of perceived ‘offence.' Not in this instance however, where digital security expert and founder of One World Labs, Chris Roberts, was barred from a United Airlines flight after tweeting that he might be able to hack into its system to manually deploy oxygen masks.
However this sort of sentiment wasn't much of a threat, but a reference to recent research he and his company have been partaking in. As the BBC points out, Roberts' spent much of his time in recent weeks discussing with various publications about the possibility that airplane internet could be used to hijack certain systems on commercial flights. He has also expressed despair at the lack of interest from aircraft manufacturers with regards to digital security, perhaps prompting his rather public outing of potential issues.
“Find myself on a 737/800, lets see Box-IFE-ICE-SATCOM, ? Shall we start playing with EICAS messages? “PASS OXYGEN ON” Anyone ? :),” reads Robert's tweet which had him thrown off of the plane last week. He was then questioned by the FBI for over four hours, who also took his laptop for further investigation.
Maybe it's the company he keeps?
When quizzed why it contacted authorities and had Roberts removed from its plane, a United spokesperson said:
“Given Mr Roberts's claims regarding manipulating aircraft systems, we've decided it's in the best interest of our customers and crew members that he not be allowed to fly United.”
They went on to add that they were confident the company's digital security systems could not be breached by outside sources.
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KitGuru Says: Joking about anything related to airplane security still makes plenty of people pretty jumpy, but this seems a little ridiculous considering the man's profession, no?
Image source: Sidragon1/Twitter
Typical. Rather than learning from the expert they ban him from flying. Not like they could of spoken to him to learn what to do better or anything.
If they’re confident of their security systems, why did they ban him?
i know right..
“Chris Roberts” Star Citizen… Space Crafts… This guy talks about hacking Aircrafts and shares the same name… Half life 3 spoilers confirmed.
If someone tweeted a joke about hijacking the plane they’d get kicked off too. You just don’t joke or post big headed comments about security system on a plane. They have a zero risk policy for obvious reasons. Some idiot joked they had a bomb and caused the flight to be redirected and many other flights delayed as a result. All for a bit of a laugh…
i’d like to quote this one:
“They went on to add that they were confident the company’s digital security systems could not be breached by outside sources.”
first of all, this is a good example of Security Through Obscurity wherein the company thinks their system is “perfect” and no one could breach it but they don’t know all the flaws and vunerabilities of their system.
second, they said their systems could not be breached by OUTSIDE SOURCES. so if a passenger decides to attack their systems, he’d encounter little to no security?
they need to stop being arrogant and work with digital security experts rather than banning him from the flight.
I say let the guy test how secure their system really is.
A bomb threat is different than a hack threat. A bomb on board can’t be contained. A hack attempt? If the system is as secure as they think, nothing will happen. And what did this guy threaten? To drop the oxygen masks. Oh, what a threat! Much more dangerous than a bomb.
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Are you for real? Take off the tinted glasses and just accept it was a stupid thing to do. It doesn’t really matter if the threat isn’t as seriousness. After things that have happened they don’t mess about any more. I know the guy had no intentions to actually do it, as it was a joke. But for one second just imagine if he did do it. Suddenly people would be speculating that terrorist can hack a planes engine etc.
There are two possibilities: If he can do it, then numerous other people can do it, using tools that security can’t stop. It’s not like a bomb, which someone has to smuggle on board, it’s something that anyone can learn to do and do using standard tools. If it’s considered a threat and a possibility, then all flights should be grounded. The second possibility is that he can’t do it, in which case banning him from a flight doesn’t help security in any way.
It’s true that overreaction is a reaction, and so perhaps better than no reaction, but “let’s ban him and send him a note after two weeks” seems stupid.
You drop Oxygen masks, people will panic. It’s instinct, especially if they’ve just done a safety talk.
was thinking exactly the same thing lmao x’D
True, but it’s still way less dangerous than a bomb. Anyway, the guy is a security researcher who had talked about these dangers before. Anyone with half a brain would get the context of his post.