(Maya Alleruzzo/AP)
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Iraqi insurgents have reportedly intercepted live video feeds from the U.S. military’s Predator drones using a $25.95 Windows application which allows them to track the pilotless aircraft undetected.
Hackers working with Iraqi militants were able to determine which areas of the country were under surveillance by the U.S. military, the Wall Street Journal reported…adding that video feeds from drones in Afghanistan also appear to have been compromised…
This apparent security breach, which had been known in military and intelligence circles to be possible, arose because the Predator unmanned aerial vehicles do not use encryption in the final link to their operators on the ground. (By contrast, every time you log on to a bank or credit card Web site, or make a phone call on most modern cellular networks, your communications are protected by encryption technology.)
When a Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, is far from its base, terrain prohibits it from transmitting directly to its operator. Instead, it switches to a satellite link. That means an enterprising hacker can use his own satellite dish, a satellite modem, and a copy of the SkyGrabber Windows utility sold by the Russian company SkySoftware to intercept and display the UAV’s transmissions.
The Air Force became aware of the security vulnerability when copies of Predator video feeds were discovered on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant late last year, and again in July on other militants’ laptops, the Journal reported. The problem, though, is that the drones use proprietary technology created in the early 1990s, and adding encryption would be an expensive task.
No doubt, we’re already paying through the nose for these aircraft. Who was the dummy who decided to leave out encryption?
Reality of clueless military/goverment never fails to shock and awe
Undoubtedly, these crates are controlled by Windows XP workstations, running IE6…
Nobody thought to encrypt the data? I wonder about the control channels then. Cute to be bombed by your own predator.
I feel a billion dollar “fix”is coming.I bet it goes to a “friend” of the administration.
I’m going to go out on a limb here….maybe the military WANTED them to see the images. Just maybe they did not encrypt specific flights over carefully selected areas as part of a campaign of misinformation to the enemy.
A lot of cops get killed with their own weapon. Don’t underestimate the terrorists and get some simple encryption going.
#2, RTFA…early 90′s. It could be DR-DOS.
I’m willing to wager the developer already has a solution, and has been trying to sell the upgrade to the Air Force for a while. It should also be fairly simple to overload the eavesdroppers with so much data–much of it bogus–that what they collect is meaningless.
Then this thought occurs…if you caught the feed in the middle of a mission how would you know what or where you’re seeing? The view is way off normal, and I probably wouldn’t recognize my own neighborhood.
Here are some drone video if you’re interested..
I call bull*shit on this. They are just fluffing this lie to get more money for more killing, these fuckers are all the same, through out everything so you can get new stuff at the tax payers expense.
“The problem, though, is that the drones use proprietary technology created in the early 1990s, and adding encryption would be an expensive task.”
Why the heck are they using early 1990′s technology for these drones?
And I find it hard to believe that the military would balk at the cost of adding encryption. How much do they spend on toilet paper?
Just another incident of the cluelessness of the folks who spend trillions of dollars. Pathetic.
Weren’t Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra supposed to be handling this? Probably just playing with there web2.0 dashboards.
The roman Empire II has fallen and no one notices.
The Russian software company, also makes a rather interesting network sniffer called LANGrabber.
If the insurgents wanted to really mess things up, they would crack DirecTV and Dish Network encryption and give it to us lazy Americans, thus ruining us.
#11 – doesn’t have a clue about which department of government is who. Cripes. Go back to watching Fox Snooze.
” Who was the dummy who decided to leave out encryption?”
That and – Who was the dummy that decided to use Windows?
#13
Been done, search FTA IKS, for Dish USA & BEV in Canada.
Instant solution: Flood the airwaves in each “theater” with dozens of feeds recorded last week, a year ago, yesterday, etc. Now which channel do we watch, Emir?
#17 actually, that’s a good idea. i would suggest Madonna videos instead. We’ll start with “Like a Prayer”
Abdul: ” Habib, what are you watching on YouTube? That looks like our hous…..” -KRUMPTH!-
We’re so screwed. Anyone else feels like they’re in the crews nest of the Titanic just as the iceberg comes into view?