Security expert pulled off flight by FBI after exposing airline tech vulnerabilities

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.”
His findings, along with those of another security expert quoted in the Fox News reports, were backed up a GAO report released Tuesday.
“If you don’t have people like me researching and blowing the whistle on system vulnerabilities, we will find out the hard way what those vulnerabilities are when an attack happens,” Roberts said.
With increasingly sophisticated attacks on a number of targets, Roberts has consulted with numerous government and private clients to identify threats to financial and intellectual property, customer data and other protected information. He also has served as both an in-house security expert and consultant on IT security, engineering and architecture and design operations for scores of Fortune 500 companies across the finance, retail, energy and services sectors.
He regularly engages with various government agencies on critical security issues of national importance. Ironically, Roberts met with the FBI at the agency’s request three times after the agency asked for his guidance on protecting airplanes from cyberhackers.
Wednesday night, FBI agents confiscated Roberts’ numerous electronic devices and computer files including his laptop and thumb drives and demanded he give them access to his data. They wanted to forensically image his laptop, but it is a company-owned asset with client information, research and intellectual property, some of which is sensitive in nature and encrypted.
So after consulting with his CEO, Roberts told the agents they would need a warrant, something they still have not presented.
FBI agents disclosed to Roberts that they also had questioned fellow passengers and forensically examined the plane to determine if any areas had been tampered with.
“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,” Roberts said. “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.”
Roberts flew from Denver to Chicago to Syracuse at the invitation of a defense contractor to speak an aerospace conference about vulnerabilities in airplane systems, a topic Roberts commented on for Fox News in late March, when he said commercial and even military planes have an Achilles heel that could leave them vulnerable to hackers or terrorists on the ground due to flaws in the entertainment and satellite communications systems.
Roberts’ findings were featured on FoxNews.com, on Fox News Radio and on the Fox News show "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" on March 19, 2015, and again on April 15, 2015.
Ruben Santamarta, principal security consultant for IOActive, told Fox News he also discovered a backdoor that allowed him to gain privileged access to the Satellite Data Unit, the most important piece of SATCOM (Satellite communications) equipment on aircraft.
“These vulnerabilities allowed unauthenticated users to hack into the SATCOM equipment when it is accessible through WiFi or In-Flight entertainment networks,” Santamarta said.
There are “multiple high risk vulnerabilities” such as weak encryption algorithms or insecure protocols in SATCOM technologies manufactured by some of the world’s largest companies, Santamarta found.
“These vulnerabilities have the potential to allow a malicious actor to intercept, manipulate or block communications, and in some cases, to remotely take control of the physical device,” Santamarta reported.
The Government Accountability Office also presented a series of threatening scenarios for passengers, saying the same Internet access now available on most commercial flights makes it possible for hackers to bring down a plane in a report published Tuesday.
"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," the GAO report states.
The worst-case scenario is a terrorist with a laptop sitting among passengers and taking control of the airplane using its passenger Wi-Fi, said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who requested the investigation.
"That's a serious vulnerability, and FAA should work quickly" to fix the problem, DeFazio told the Associated Press.
Roberts isn’t sure what will happen next. He had to make his presentation to the defense industry Thursday in Syracuse without his electronics. Friday morning, he was scheduled to fly back to Denver, something he hopes he will be allowed to do. He already has been pre-checked through TSA, another irony he pointed out.
“The TSA has already dug into my background and cleared me for the pre-check program,” Roberts said, noting several other government agencies he’s worked with have done the same.
Paul Bresson, the Unit Chief for the FBI National Press Office at the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C., said in response to a Fox News inquiry about the Roberts’ detainment: “We have no comment on this matter.”

Bergdahl's platoon mates: Head of Joint Chiefs knew he walked off base in 2009

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl walked away from his base in Afghanistan June 30, 2009, and by December of that same year, the president's principal military adviser, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, knew those details, according to three of Bergdahl's platoon mates who spoke to Fox News.
"I asked him (Mullen) if he knew about Bergdahl and that he deserted and he (Mullen) told me that he knew of the circumstances surrounding his walking off," former Sgt. Matt Vierkant told Fox,"(and) that they were developing leads and following leads, trying to do everything they could to get him back."
After pulling security duty for the chairman, who was doing a swing through Afghanistan in December 2009, Vierkant, along with Evan Buetow and Cody Full, said they met informally with Mullen and about eight other soldiers. After a pep talk about the mission, the three said Mullen asked the squad leaders and platoon leadership to take a break.
"He sat down with all the lower enlisted guys and the team leaders and basically he said, 'Hey, what do you want to know...You got any questions? He's like, I'm an open book. Let's just have a little question and answer session," Buetow explained.
"So Matt asked him, you know Bergdahl deserted, what's going on with that? And Admiral Mullen said, 'Yes, we know all the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl walking away from the OP (outpost,)and we're still working on getting him back, figuring out where he is and kind of figuring out that whole situation.’"
This account was backed up by a third platoon mate, former Specialist Cody Full. The men were split on whether Mullen singled them out because of the Bergdahl connection or whether it was a chance meeting, but they emphasized that at the time, they appreciated the fact that Mullen seemed to speak candidly and openly.
“I don't remember him being taken aback by it at all, you know, he knew what was going on, he answered not confidently but he didn't have to think about it, he didn't want to give us some political answer,” Buetow explained. “He just gave us an answer.
Asked if there was any ambiguity based on the conversation, Vierkant said no. "Without a doubt, he (Mullen) knew he (Bergdahl) deserted or, you know, was suspected of desertion. There was no doubt in my mind that he fully understood what Bergdahl did."
The three said they felt relieved, and grateful to Mullen for the conversation.
The men's account is significant because Mullen reported directly to President Obama and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the reported admission comes a full four and a half years before National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Bergdahl served honorably and his parents were called to the White House for a Rose Garden ceremony after he had been swapped for five Taliban commanders.
"If Mullen knew, and now it's alleged that he did know, it would be, it would be unthinkable that he didn't pump this up the chain of command, his chain of command, or, tell the president directly," Brad Blakeman who served in the Bush White House, explained. "At a minimum, this would have been included in the president's daily brief, and at a maximum, it would've been told directly to the President by Mullen."
In a statement to Fox News, Mullen said, "From the moment Sgt. Bergdahl went missing, the U.S. Military was focused on finding him--as it does with any serviceman or woman who goes missing. The exact circumstances were not known then, nor did they drive our decisions. We do not leave our people behind."
Fox has extended an open invitation to the Admiral to explain his recollection of events during the 2009 trip, what he knew in December 2009 about the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s capture, and whether he told anything to the president and defense secretary, or if the circumstances were already well understood at senior levels of the White House.
A military official who was travelling with Mullen during the 2009 Afghanistan trip confirmed Bergdahl's teammates did pull security during a leg of the trip,
While not commenting on the claims that they met informally with Mullen, the official said it was common practice for Mullen to ask leadership to take a break so that he could speak directly and candidly with soldiers.
"I want to ask him (Mullen) did they brief the White House? Who knew about it and why would you still do this trade knowing all the information that you knew?" Vierkant said. "We don't leave anyone behind. The thing is, we never left him (Bergdahl) behind. He left us behind. He chose to walk off and do whatever and get captured, that was his fault. Those were his choices."
Bergdahl has not been convicted of any charges, but faces a military court martial in the summer.

Tax Return Cartoon

California Democrats trying to raise cigarette tax

California Democrats are trying again this year to pass a tax increase on cigarette sales, one of several bills that attempt to curb tobacco use.
The bill if passed would increase the tax from 87 cents to $2.87 a pack, after roughly 17 years without an increase.
State Democrats have also proposed bills to limit the public use of chewing tobacco and electronic cigarettes and to increase the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 that if passed would make California the only state to increase the minimum age.
Tobacco interest groups such as the Cigar Association of America told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that they will be looking into different tactics to fight the tax but no decisions have been made yet.
The bill to increase the smoking age passed unanimously in the Senate Health Committee with bipartisan support and is now headed to the chamber’s appropriations committee.
However, the legislation to increase the cigarette tax, now being considered by the Senate Governance and Finance Committee, will likely face a more difficult path toward passage.
The bill needs to pass with a two-thirds majority, which means it would need support from Republicans, who have previously opposed such measures.
And similar efforts have failed 17 straight times in California, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Those efforts have been defeated largely by the strong opposition and lobbying efforts from the tobacco industry.
In 2012, for example, a ballot initiative to increase the tax by $1 was narrowly defeated after the tobacco interests spent $47.7 million in opposition, the newspaper also reported.
The other measures this year would ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public places where tobacco smoking is already prohibited, prohibit the use of chewing tobacco in professional baseball stadiums and try to reduce litter by banning single-use filters, which are on the vast majority of cigarettes.
Supporters of the age-increase legislation say it will stop minors from smoking and perhaps even keep them from starting.
The Cigar Association of America told FoxNews.com that 18 year olds can vote and serve in the military so they also should be allowed to legally smoke cigarettes at that age. However, nobody testified directly against the legislation, according to The Times.
Stefan Didak, a spokesman for the Smoke Free Alternatives Trade Association in California, told the newspaper that the bill “attacks a safer alternative to smoking -- one that is helping some smokers quit.”

Addresses of senior FBI officials, other high-ranking federal officials published online

U.S. officials are investigating the online posting of the names and addresses of high-ranking FBI and other federal officials.
Investigators suspect a “right-wing extremist group” may be behind the incident, according to CBS News, which first reported the incident.
The addresses and names of officials and former officials from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies also were posted.
The FBI did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment. The White House referred questions to DHS, which did not immediately respond to a similar request.
The incident comes about a month after a group claiming allegiance to the Islamic State posted the names and other personal information of roughly 100 U.S. military members.

Questions swirl over how small aircraft able to land on Capitol lawn without being shot down

WASHINGTON –  Questions are swirling about how a postal worker from Florida managed to land a small gyrocopter Wednesday on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol without being shot out of the sky by authorities.
Mailman Doug Hughes took responsibility for the stunt on a website where he said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress in order to draw attention to campaign finance corruption.
“As I have informed the authorities, I have no violence inclinations or intent,” Hughes wrote on his website, the democracyclub.org. “An ultralight aircraft poses no major physical threat -- it may present a political threat to graft. I hope so. There's no need to worry -- I'm just delivering the mail."
House Homeland Security panel Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said the pilot landed on his own, but that had he made it much closer to the Capitol authorities were prepared to shoot him down.
"Had it gotten any closer to the speaker's balcony they have long guns to take it down, but it didn't. It landed right in front," McCaul said.

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• Gyrocopter lands near US Capitol

Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said Wednesday night that media reports earlier in the day claiming the Secret Service Tampa Field Office had been alerted to the flight in advance were not true.
"The subject involved in today's incident had come to the attention of the USSS approximately one and a half years ago," Leary said. "On October 4, 2013, the Secret Service obtained information from a concerned citizen about an individual purporting their desire to land a single manned aircraft on the grounds of the United States Capitol or the White House." He added a complete investigation was conducted at the time.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot had not been in contact with air traffic controllers and the FAA didn't authorize him to enter restricted airspace.
Airspace security rules that cover the Capitol and the District of Columbia prohibit private aircraft flights without prior coordination and permission. Violators can face civil and criminal penalties.
A law enforcement official told Fox News Wednesday night that the pilot has not yet been formally charged. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is currently reviewing the incident for possible charges.
The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the situation.
Witnesses said the craft approached the Capitol from the west, flying low over the National Mall and the Capitol reflecting pool across the street from the building. It barely cleared a row of trees and a statue of Gen. Ulysses Grant. The gyrocopter landed hard and bounced and the pilot was quickly arrested.
The open-air aircraft sported a U.S. Postal Service logo.
One witness told The Associated Press that when the aircraft landed, police with rifles yelled at the pilot not to move, and told bystanders to run, with their heads down.
About two hours after the landing, police said a bomb squad had cleared the aircraft, and that authorities would be moving it to a secure location.
The incident once again thrusts Washington’s airspace into the spotlight. In January,a quadcopter drone crashed onto the White House grounds, sparking calls for tighter security.
A gyrocopter resembles a small helicopter. However, unlike a helicopter, a gyrocopter’s blades are not powered, with the aircraft relying instead on an engine-powered propeller to provide thrust. Often used as recreational aircraft, gyrocopters have also been deployed in law enforcement.

ISIS operating base few miles from Texas border, group warns

Islamic State fighters are operating training bases near the U.S. southern border and are being aided by violent drug cartels to smuggle terrorists into states like Texas, a report published Tuesday by a watchdog group claims.
The Judicial Watch report, which cited an unnamed Mexican Army officer and a Mexican police inspector, raises new fears that the fight with ISIS is closer to the U.S. than previously thought.
The report identified the locations of the two bases, and said one is as close as 8 miles from Texas in a town west of Juarez. Mexican authorities found possible evidence -- plans written in Arabic and Urdu -- last week in the town of "Anapra," the sources said. These sources told the watchdog that "coyotes" who work for drug cartels assist in smuggling terrorists between Fort Hancock, Texas, and other undisclosed locations.
The U.S. State Department and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to an inquiry from FoxNews.com to confirm the report. But the Mexican border has long been seen as a potential vulnerability.
FoxNews.com reported last summer that social media chatter shows ISIS is aware of the porous border, and are “expressing an increased interest” in crossing over to carry out a terrorist attack.

Clinton Foundation to keep accepting donations from foreign governments

The Clinton Foundation said late Wednesday that it will continue to accept donations from foreign governments during Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, despite concerns that such gifts will create a conflict of interest for the Democratic front-runner.
The foundation's board said that donations directly to the foundation would only be allowed from six governments — Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. However, other governments could continue to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a subsidiary program that encourages donors to match contributions from others to tackle international problems without direct donations to the charity.
The foundation also said it would stop holding CGI meetings abroad after a final session planned for Morocco in May. According to the Wall Street Journal, ministers from any government would be allowed to attend and appear on panels at CGI meetings and those governments would be permitted to pay attendance fees of $20,000.
Ethics experts had called on the foundation to stop accepting all foreign donations for the duration of Clinton's presidential campaign.
The Journal also reported that the Morocco conference had been funded by a $1 million gift from a Moroccan state-owned phosphate export company. The paper also reported that a second planned CGI meeting scheduled for June in Athens had been canceled.
Clinton, who resigned from the foundation's board last week, has faced mounting criticism over the charity's ties to foreign governments. Her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination referred questions from the Associated Press about the board's decision to the foundation.
The foundation also will begin disclosing its donors every quarter instead of annually — an answer to long-standing criticism that the foundation's once-a-year lists made it difficult to view shifts and trends in the charity's funding. Former President Bill Clinton and other foundation officials have long defended the charity's transparency, but the new move signaled sensitivity to those concerns, particularly as his wife begins her race for the White House.
Foundation spokesman Craig Minassian said that under the new disclosure policy, "the Clinton Foundation is reinforcing its commitment to accountability while protecting programs that are improving the lives of millions of people around the world." But he also insisted that the old annual disclosure policy went "above and beyond what's required by voluntarily disclosing our more than 300,000 donors on our website for anyone to see."
An Associated Press analysis of Clinton Foundation donations between 2001 and 2015 showed governments and agencies from 16 nations previously gave direct grants of between $55 million and $130 million. Those governments include the six nations that will be allowed to continue donating. The remaining 10 are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Kuwait, Italy, Brunei, Taiwan and the Dominican Republic.
Hillary Clinton had previously agreed with the Obama administration to limit new foreign donations to the foundation while she served as secretary of state, but at least six nations that previously contributed still donated to the charity during her four-year stint. In one case, the foundation failed to notify the State Department about a donation from the government of Algeria.
Critics targeted the foundation's reliance on funding from several Middle Eastern governments that suppress dissent and women's rights — concerns that Clinton focused on during her stint as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.
The revised list of direct donors is not without controversy. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, which has already given the foundation between $250,000 and $500,000, has also pushed for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which environmental critics say could spread carbon emissions. President Barack Obama has yet to decide on the project, which would span several U.S. states, but he has already vetoed one bill aimed at swiftly approving the plan.
Foundation officials said the charity is not involved in that issue at all and has a "strong program" aimed at curbing reducing carbon emissions.