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 ...
I don’t think we do anywhere nearly enough to mess with the minds of our enemies. Of course, if we WERE doing it we wouldn’t know about it anyway, so maybe I’m wrong! But I would love to be in charge of messing with their minds for a few months. I would send my carrier based planes on low level supersonic flights over their population areas at all times of the day and night. On each flight I’d drop leaflets reminding them the sonic booms could just as easily be enhanced with the booms of real ordnance!
LOL. You can win the war without ever going to battle. That’s the goal - or at least it should be.
I seriously would drop leaflets all over Iran advising the citizens that the World will not let the Mullahs have access to nuclear weapons, period, even if it means a military attack against them. I would further advise the citizens that their best bet to avoid such an attack would be for them to rise up and overthrow the thugs that have taken over their country for 30 plus years. Given the choice of doing battle with those of the military who would turn against their own people and dealing with the kind of attack it would take to destroy the regime’s nuclear aspirations the former is much better than the latter.
I know this is meddling with the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, but the alternatives are much worse. I’m sure if the world considers advising a revolution to overthrow the Mullahs an act of meddling they will be much less happy with the kind of meddling it will take when the world has to move to deny Iran a nuclear capability. The choice should be theirs.
DirectTV signals are encrypted. The software could intercept them, but decoding would be another story.
Our POTUS-clown's so finished.
The imbecile single handedly did for the Democrat Party what the entire combined GOP & Co couldn't over 25 years.
Whadda guy.
I say let us raise a glass to zerO, "The Destroyer". LOL
Ya mean they don’t encrypt this stuff? Hell, when I was in the Army in 1980, they encrypted voice transmissions. Why can’t these idiots encrypt video transmissions?
If camel-kissing troglodyte throwbacks to the 7th Century can figure out how to hack our drones using off-the-shelf components that cost little more than family meal bucket of extra-crispy at KFC, imagine what the Russian and Chinese governments can do with their resources.
Well..
Looks like we should go back to carpet bombing.
It’s not.
The front page Wall Street Journal today was good.
The Einsteins at the Pentagon didn’t think it necessary, as they assumed the terrorists wouldn’t know how to intercept the data!!!
It’s absolutely inverdible that that stream is not encrypted.
For cryin’ out loud!
Heads should roll over this.
And watch what the response will be: “We need a 10 bil contract and then we’ll get right on that”.
The Age of Incompetence continues......
Don’t they know how to secure their wireless nets?
Here is a hint, you use very long passwords ... sheesh.
It is not a hack when software does what is was designed to do. It was bad design not the protect the transmissions.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;q=quick;s=insurgents
Even though it was stupid to ever use unencrypted video, maybe this could be used to our advantage. Just like dummy radio transmissions providing false information. Let the enemy intercept unencrypted drone video that looks like we are searching for them somewhere else so they’ll feel nice and safe while a drone with encrypted video nails them out of nowhere.
There’s no way the Jihadis did this without outside help.
Videos illustrating why UAVs suck to the core. Why replace traditional maneuver warfare with push-button standoff firepower?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.