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Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones (WHAT?)
WSJ ^ | 12/17/09 | SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE

Posted on 12/17/2009 3:15:05 AM PST by Mikey_1962

WASHINGTON -- Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights. Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance.

The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially serious vulnerability in Washington's growing network of unmanned drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be either politically untenable or too risky.

The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military technologies.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: drones; hacks; reaper; uav
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To: AlexW

The uplink, downlink to an AWACS (a few years ago at least) was not encrypted well either.

A little bird whispered in my ear years ago about a young lieutenant who uploaded a simple virus and brought a joint military operation to a standstill because of it to make his point about security.

The little bird is not in the Army now...


41 posted on 12/17/2009 8:32:58 AM PST by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: SoCal Pubbie

If you read the excerpt, you can surmise the rest of what is in the article:

“Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes’ systems.”

In the article itself it is stated “The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn’t know how to exploit it, the officials said.”

Some of the drones do not have encryption on the downlink, so there is no hardware needed to unencrypt non encrypted data in the first place.


42 posted on 12/17/2009 8:33:37 AM PST by jurroppi1 (America, do not commit Barry Care-y!)
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To: Mikey_1962

I think the word to look for here is “encription”.


43 posted on 12/17/2009 8:36:24 AM PST by exnavy (God save the republic)
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To: Abathar
The little bird is not in the Army now...

...and the feeds still aren't encrypted.

A very close friend works in data security. It's an area frequently overlooked and considered unimportant. I suspect it'll take a big hit to get anyones attention.

44 posted on 12/17/2009 8:38:59 AM PST by FourPeas (Why does Professor Presbury's wolfhound, Roy, endeavour to bite him?)
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To: jurroppi1

Guilty of not reading carefully!


45 posted on 12/17/2009 8:40:49 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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To: khnyny

Shoot em some old Billy Mays commercials or some XXX so we can taget the crowd of ragheads around the video display.


46 posted on 12/17/2009 8:46:20 AM PST by dusttoyou (libs are all wee wee'd up and no place to go)
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To: Mikey_1962

Yeah, but we can see them seeing us seeing them. In other words, it’s much as it’s always been! :-)


47 posted on 12/17/2009 9:05:35 AM PST by LibWhacker (America awake!)
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To: Mikey_1962
Uh, an unencrypted data channel to a remotely-operated weapons platform?

Sorry, I'm calling BS.

There is no way something like that could have made it through procurement, testing, or deployment.

Unless Muslims or ChiComs on the inside of the Defense Dept. managed it all the way through. And even I'm not *that* paranoid.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

48 posted on 12/17/2009 9:08:08 AM PST by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: jwparkerjr
I like the way you think!

That was my first thought as a countermeasure.
I have to believe that encrypting the real signal should add no serious complexity and weight to the system.

An electronic version of Enigma, so to speak.

49 posted on 12/17/2009 9:09:56 AM PST by Publius6961 (Â…he's not America, he's an employee who hasn't risen to minimal expectations.)
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To: hennie pennie
Already posted 4 times.

So?

I haven't seen it four times.

Didn't you get the memo?
I am the center of the universe!

50 posted on 12/17/2009 9:13:27 AM PST by Publius6961 (Â…he's not America, he's an employee who hasn't risen to minimal expectations.)
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Iranian-backed insurgents

And we're not even complaining.

51 posted on 12/17/2009 1:40:21 PM PST by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: Mikey_1962
So we have a multi million dollar system that is supposed to do all of our fighting from the air in the future, sending stuff in the clear.

Brilliant.

52 posted on 12/17/2009 2:49:26 PM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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