Posted on 12/17/2009 4:38:32 AM PST by Yo-Yo
Iraqi insurgents intercepted Predator drone communications using $26 tool, according to report Insurgents in Iraq were able to intercept video images transmitted by the US army’s unmanned spy planes using software cheaply available on the Internet, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
The insurgents were not able to control the Predator drones, but military personnel told the newspaper that tactical advantages may have been compromised by the breach.
It came to light when US soldiers captured a laptop belonging to insurgents, and found that it contained video images from a Predator drone. The WSJ report cites a source claiming that insurgents regularly used satellite communications interception software “available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet”.
The news highlights an emerging dimension of the growing sophistication of the cyber-criminal underground: While once a certain degree of technical know-how was required to become a ‘hacker’, today such is the demand that cheap and easy-to-use tools are widely available on the web.
If Afghanis can do it, imagine a real shooting war against an equal such as China or Russia? Most likely, these UAVs will be rendered useless due to jamming and control spoofing.
There’s no excuse for this kind of negligence!
Not many specific details though.
Like, *PING*, dude.
Yo-Yo:
Clinton's fault for the whole "COTS" procurement brainstorm.
And Obama's by definition.
By putting together information from multiple sorties, the enemy can figure out all kinds of things like time over target, operating ranges, lots of fun stuff.
If they've had the sense to save just the intercepts so far, they can do this even *if* we encrypt the intercepts going forward.
NO cheers, unforturnately.
Obama owns it now, but the media is never going to blame him for it. They will find ways to blame Bush.
lots of money can buy anyone whatever they want or need. There is no such thing as unbreakable code or “hack” proof systems. Man made it man can undo it.
But Yoyo ...haven’t you received the memo! According to some on FR, all that the USAF needs is A-10 Warthogs and a ‘swarm’ of UCAVs ...no need for those pesky Raptors. They must be somehow sure a potential future near-peer adversary like China cannot be able to jam the signal, degrade the signal quality, corrupt the signal, or just simply take out the satellites relaying the signal (and any real future war involving near peer advanced adversaries will involve blinding or destroying foe satellites). Thus, to them this must be a non story ...must be a ‘fluke’ by the Jihadis that China cannot be able to replicate. Thus, hurrah to the A-10 and its BIG gun and the UCAV ‘swarms’ with 20G plus maneuvrability etc etc etc ...
“he insurgents were not able to control the Predator drones, but military personnel told the newspaper that tactical advantages may have been compromised by the breach.”
This is a fairly comical assessment. May have been compromised?
We spent how much for these drones, and the feeds can be easily intercepted?
Governmental incompetence, contractor greed over patriotism.
Now that the terrorists have been able to develop their countermeasures, since they have had a chance to test them under live conditions, we have a much less effective system.
Idiots. Just idiots.
You’re right.
They should have provided a link to the sight where we can buy the software.
They're failed states too?
MI Ping
I’m not sure I buy this yet. I’ll have to hear from some real military comm geeks first.
It’s simple. They did not actually see the drone footage in real time. They simply downloaded the footage that some soldier uploaded to the internet. Done after the fact. Google, drone videos. Viola, you can watch dozens of them. I worry more about people who think they actually tapped into the drone programs.
You don’t think it possible the “video” feeds the insurgents were looking at were video feeds the CIA wanted them to see and believe were real time?
I would venture to guess there are any number of programs the CIA has to feed disinformation to the enemy.
Me, I put my money on the odds the insurgents watching these videos were being fed exactly what we wanted them to see - a video that makes them believe the drone is 250 miles from where it really is.
Obama should have his eye on ball and get this corrected. This is HIS FAULT.
Presumably, the $26 decrypting software was also on the laptop, and was tested against encrypted video.
It takes time to encrypt and decrypt data. Maybe the delay isn't acceptable for various reasons..
Just seems implausable. The military operates on an intranet ( self contained).
If you are going to use the UAV to shoot at someone, the video feed had better be as close to “real-time” as possible. Encrypting the feed takes time, and the better the encryption, the longer the lag, would be my guess. And no, I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
The SkyGrabber site is unreachable this morning probably because of the news reports. I've learned elsewhere that this software can intercept satellite feeds but I don't see where it presents the feed back in real time.
I think so too. If they can actually intercept compressed freq hopping encrypted feeds with a $26 dollar tool, I'd be amazed.
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.