Insurgents hack predator drones

[philw]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/insurgents-hack-predator-drones-with-cheap-software-pentagon-says-its-fixed-now/story-e6frfro0-1225811617549

Insurgents hack predator drones with cheap software, Pentagon says it's fixed now   

ideo from drone aircraft intercepted
Cheap software not built for hacking drones
Problem has been fixed - Pentagon
IRAQI insurgents have used cheap off-the-shelf software to hack into video feeds from US predator drones.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Iranian-backed Shiite insurgents used software programs such as SkyGrabber - available online for $US25.95 ($29.30) - to capture live video footage from the unmanned aircraft.

The report exposed a possible weakness with the highly valued drones, which are increasingly crucial to US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as CIA manhunts against Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan.

The US military has since fixed the problem, a defense official said yesterday.

"This is an old issue that's been addressed," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding that the problem has been "taken care of".


The official confirmed the report was accurate but would not discuss details of efforts to encrypt the link between drones and operators on the ground.

Some sensitive video feeds from drones are routinely encrypted, said another defense official who asked not to be named. But the extent of the encryption remained unclear.

The problem was uncovered in July 2009, when the US military found files of intercepted drone video feeds on the laptop of a captured militant, intelligence and defense officials told the Journal.

They discovered "days and days and hours and hours of proof," an unnamed source said.

"It is part of their kits now."

Some of the most detailed examples of drone intercepts have been uncovered in Iraq, but the same technique is known to have been employed in Afghanistan and could easily be used in other areas where US drones operate.

The US government has known about the flaw since the 1990s, but assumed its adversaries would not be able to take advantage of it, the Journal said.

Adding encryption to a decade-old system requires upgrading several components of the system linking drones to ground control.

One of the developers of SkyGrabber, which is made by Russian company SkySoftware, told the Journal he had no idea the program could be used to intercept drone feeds.

"It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the internet - no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," Andrew Solonikov said.

The report on intercepted drone feeds came a day after Lieutenant General David Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, said some unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan soon would be equipped with a new hi-tech camera system called "Gorgon Stare" - allowing a drone to beam back at least 10 separate video feeds at the same time.

[Pathfinder]

Ars Technica is saying that the entire data feed was hacked, not just the video. The only thing that prevented them from commandeering the Predator was because the plane uses a proprietary communications protocol - also unencrypted.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/predator-drones-use-less-encryption-than-your-tv.ars

Yes, your Blu-Ray player has more encryption than does a Predator drone!

[tombogan03884]

No real surprise. Coding and code breaking has been a continuous battle since ancient times. No matter what security protocol one person can come up with some one equally smart will come up with a way around it.
As I understand it, top of the line encryption uses a 250 digit key, but the NSA breaks them every day.
It is possible for some one skilled in that area to break any code any other person can come up with, including computer picked random numbers.

[alfsauve]

It's not really hacking if you're just monitoring an un-encrypted downlink.   "scanner" buffs do it all the time.

The big deal was the military didn't encrypt the stuff in the first place.   Duh-h-h-h-h-h.

[texcaliber]

Andrew Solonikov is lucky that Fox dropped "The Terminator:Sara Connor Canonical" because ol' Andy would be on her 'List'. 


You know you were thinking it.

[Sponsor]

[tombogan03884]

It's not really hacking if you're just monitoring an un-encrypted downlink.   "scanner" buffs do it all the time.

The big deal was the military didn't encrypt the stuff in the first place.   Duh-h-h-h-h-h.

They should not encrypt it, it should have it's own channel on cable TV. Or at least a website.
They could even steal the NY Times old motto "all the insurgents that are fit to blast"  
I'll even bet that it would surpass a million (website ) hits the first week.  

[Jackel]

"hay uhh, think we should have some anti virus softwear on our $10,000,000 drone sir?"

"shup son thats crazy talk, these guys go home and charm snakes out of wicker baskets when they get home."