Iraqi terrorists use $26 software to monitor U.S. Predator activities

Wall Street Journal — Patrick Madrid ^ | 12-17-09 | WSJ: SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE

[Patrick Madrid]

True, money can't buy me love, but $26 worth can buy me plenty of lead time to get out of Dodge when a Predator is on the way to blow up my tent.

According to this Wall Street Journal story, Predator drones are just as wildly popular with the Iraqi bad guys as they are with the U.S. military good guys. Something tells me that the new generation of the Predator is going to have some serious upgrades.

[GeronL]

new generation?

This has already been fixed I bet.

[GeronL]

or rather... I hope.

[joe fonebone]

Now this just pisses me off....if we know they are doing this, then it can be used to our advantage, ya know, good old fashioned disinformation, very valuable in a war. What I want to know is who leaked this information? Put them up against a wall and shoot them like the traitors they are..

[Yo-Yo]

As we discussed yesterday here and here, the problem is supposedly already solved.

US military drone security breach "fixed"-official

* Iraqi insurgents hacked into drone video feeds

* $26 software used to intercept real-time video

WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Pentagon has closed a security breach that allowed insurgents to hack into data feeds from pilotless "drone" aircraft that provide real-time video of war zones, a U.S. defense official said on Thursday.

The comments followed a report in the Wall Street Journal that revealed Shi'ite fighters in Iraq used software that cost as little as $26 to intercept the video feeds, potentially allowing them to monitor U.S. military operations.

"It is an old issue that was addressed and fixed," the U.S. defense official said when asked about the article.

The article said U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem last year after apprehending a Shi'ite insurgent who had digital files of drone video feeds on his laptop. More files were found on other militants' laptops in July.

-Excerpt (from Roto-Reuters)

[InterceptPoint]

I'm sure the software helps but you need more than just software to pull off this trick. First you need a radio capable of intercepting the downlink transmission. Probably UHF but I don't really know. Then you need some way to demodulate the signal. Maybe it's just NTSC. Who knows? And then you need some way to convert that demodulated signal into ones and zeros and feed it into your laptop. And then you need to make all of that stuff work together as a system.

Now most or all of this stuff is available at Fry's and stores that sell ham equipment and such. Not a big deal. But it's certainly more than just the cost of a bit of Russian software.

I personally don't believe that systems like this are likely to be in widespread use in Iraq or Afghanistan. It's a problem that needs to be taken care of. But it is inexcusable that the U.S. military, an organization that is normally paranoid about the quality and vulnerability of their information encryption, would fail to secure this link. Where in the heck was NSA on this system. Under normal rules NSA would have had veto power over the deployment of a system like this that failed to provide full encryption of all comm links. Tis a mystery to me what went wrong. In this case I think it truly was Bush's fault. It happened on his watch.

[Dahoser]

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.

Kirk: Open up a special channel to Starfleet Command. Code 2.
Uhura: But, Captain, Code --
Kirk: That's an order, Lieutenant. Code 2.
Uhura: Yes, Captain. Code 2.
Kirk: Message -- from Enterprise to Starfleet Command this sector.
I have inadvertently encroached upon Romulan neutral zone, surrounded and under heavy Romulan attack. Escape impossible, shields failing.
…
Spock: Romulans giving ground, Captain. Obviously, they tapped in as you expected them to.
Kirk: A logical assumption, Mr. Spock.

[HD1200]

I agree 100%. The Pentagon yesterday said they knew about this “weakness” for 10 years. I don’t doubt they were using it against people they knew had hacked in & probably had the hackers watching a video of mountains 300 miles from where the drone really was.

The problem with our media is 1) they run to the papers with a story before they think about it in the concept of war, disinformation, and confusing the enemy INTENTIONALLY.

[onedoug]

Predators in orbit

[Yo-Yo]

As we discussed yesterday here and here, the problem is supposedly already solved.

Or maybe not...

Not Just Drones: Militants Can Snoop on Most U.S. Warplanes (Updated)

Link only due to Wired.com's no post policy.