Tech expert pulled off flight by FBI after he revealed security flaws with airlines' in-flight entertainment systems
- Chris Roberts of One World Labs grabbed after plane landed in Syracuse
- Two FBI agents spent four hours questioning him about cyberhacking
- Agents confiscated electronic devices and computer files from Roberts
- He flew in to give talk at aerospace conference about plane vulnerabilities
- Roberts featured on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren
- Regarded as one of the world’s top experts on counter-threat intelligence
After exposing potential security risks with airlines' in-flight entertainment systems, one of the top experts on counter-threat intelligence in the wold was pulled off a flight by FBI agents.
Chris Roberts, who featured in a string of Fox News reports, was yanked off his plane after it landed in Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday night by two FBI agents and two uniformed officers.
Roberts, who works for security intelligence company One World Labs, was questioned for the next four hours.
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Chris Roberts of One World Labs was grabbed after his plane landed in Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday
Roberts has been featured on the Fox News television show On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (left)
The FBI agents took electronic devices and computer files from Roberts and confiscated his laptop and thumb drives, Fox News reported.
They asked to forensically image his laptop, but Roberts told the agents to get a warrant.
He was coming to town to speak at an aerospace conference about vulnerabilities in airplane systems and did make a presentation at the event on Thursday without the use of his electronics.
The incident occurred only a few hours after a report about Roberts' research was released by Fox.
Roberts said in the report: '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.'
Experts worry planes' flight and entertainment systems could be compromised by terrorist hacking (file photo)
The Government Accountability Office released a report earlier this week with similar findings.
The GAO report stated: 'According to cybersecurity experts we interviewed, Internet connectivity in the cabin should be considered a direct link between the aircraft and the outside world, which includes potential malicious actors.'
Roberts is scheduled to fly home Friday and is already pre-checked through the TSA.
He said: 'You have one element in the FBI reaching out to people like me for help, but another element doing a hell of a job burning those bridges.
'Those of us who do threat research are doing it for the right reasons, and we work to build relationships with the intelligence community because we want to help them identify weaknesses before they become a problem.'
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