The FBI claims that a hacker has taken over control of a plane while it was flying in mid-air, the man denies this.
Hacking can have some serious consequences, even joking about it can get you arrested in some cases. A tweet from Chris Roberts (@Sidragon1) jokes about "playing with EICAS messages" as he "finds himself on a 737/800". Well, the FBI claims he actually did that and arrested him.
I personally don't know much about what he was planning on doing but I know enough about software to understand that no system is flawless and there is always a way for someone to take control of whatever system you're using.
His electronics, including a MacBook Pro, were taken by the police.
The FBI also claims that he has told them he was actually able to take control over the Thrust Management Computer using the entertainment system in the airplane. This gave him the ability of steering the plane and he was able to tell the plane to climb. This seemed like an unstable command, because only one of the engines actually started to climb so that the plane moved sideways. At least that's what the Canadian APTN National News says.
When Chris talked to Wired, he told them a completely different story. He told them he did about fifteen experiments on other flights to gain access to the plane network, but that he never did more than just take a look. He claims he only performed a climbing command in a virtual test in stead of on an actual airplane. Roberts said he didn't interfere with any plane while in flight.
He was actually kicked off the plane for this tweet, which I think is a good thing as any interferance with an airplane's system could result in the whole thing crashing and when that happens, people die. You wouldn't want to have to live with the fact that your curiosity has killed people, would you?
Conclusion: don't even joke around about stuff like that, plane pilots don't like jokes.
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