Plane Hacker Exposes Cyber Risk In The Aviation Industry

Security researcher Chris Roberts made headlines last month when he was hauled off a plane in New York by the FBI and accused of hacking into flight controls via his underseat entertainment unit. Other security researchers say Roberts - who was quoted by the FBI as saying he once caused "a sideways movement of the plane during a flight" - has helped draw attention to a wider issue: that the aviation industry has not kept pace with the threat hackers pose to increasingly computer-connected airplanes. Through his lawyer, Roberts said his only interest had been to "improve aircraft security."