$600 Billion a year and yet this happens

13Gigatons

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
7,461
500
126
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

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.
 

PottedMeat

Lifer
Apr 17, 2002
12,363
475
126
The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.

/facepalm
 
Jun 27, 2005
19,216
1
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And this is the same government people want in charge of their health care.

If it weren't for the fact that US Soldiers may have died because of this... I'd be LMAO.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.
/facepalm

"unencrypted downlink"
/double facepalm


For gods sake, I use $18 wireless modules at work, and they even have integrated support for 128-bit AES encryption.
 

Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
4,000
2
0
Maybe the DoD purposefully left this surveillance channel open and unencrypted for misleading information and counterintelligence?

You never know what's going on these days.
 

da loser

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,037
0
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so um what's the reason for the news publishing this info? obviously they got authorization so who benefits from this leak?
 

Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
4,000
2
0
so um what's the reason for the news publishing this info? obviously they got authorization so who benefits from this leak?

Maybe to keep the public believing that there is a real problem and we ought to occupy in those blasted regions a bit longer.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
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lol_drone.jpg

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...tm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
 

jagec

Lifer
Apr 30, 2004
24,442
6
81
And this is the same government people want in charge of their health care.

If it weren't for the fact that US Soldiers may have died because of this... I'd be LMAO.

The Pentagon is in charge of health care?

I thought they only dealt with providing long-range non-elective cosmetic surgery to the uninsured.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
The Pentagon is in charge of health care?

I thought they only dealt with providing long-range non-elective cosmetic surgery to the uninsured.

the private sector version of the predator would be showering al queda with our personal credit card information:p
 

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
Mar 8, 2003
38,416
4
0
Never fear, we have Iranian and Chinese nationals working hard to create the next generation of UAV technology to correct these flaws.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/16/physicist-pleads-guilty-implicates-ut-professor/
A Colorado physicist admitted Tuesday he and University of Tennessee professor emeritus J. Reece Roth gave a Chinese graduate research assistant access to sensitive military arms information and lied about it.

According to the information unsealed Tuesday by U.S. District Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton, the U.S. Air Force in May 2004 awarded AGT a military contract to research and develop "specific plasma actuator aerodynamic technology for use on an unmanned air vehicle that would function as a munitions system."

In April 2005, Roth and Sherman worked together to win another contract with the Air Force to continue its drone technology work.

The information alleges Roth lied about the employ of Dai, claiming only U.S. citizens were involved in the project.

his plea agreement states Roth told him about the act's requirement, and Theodore said Sherman "should have known" supplying Dai with access to information about the inner workings of military drones violated the law.

He headed up the UT Plasma Science Laboratory, in which postgraduate students including Sherman, Chinese foreign national Xin Dai and Iranian foreign national Sirous Nourgostar worked.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,499
3,618
126
"unencrypted downlink"
/double facepalm


For gods sake, I use $18 wireless modules at work, and they even have integrated support for 128-bit AES encryption.

I couldn't believe it either. Our data is way less critical and we require all communication to the network be encrypted
 

bobsmith1492

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2004
3,875
3
81
I couldn't believe it either. Our data is way less critical and we require all communication to the network be encrypted

Heck, we encrypt our wireless light control modules for warehouses and parking garages. Can't hack the parking lot lights, but military aircraft? Sure, why not...
 

peasant

Banned
Nov 22, 2009
50
0
0
Does anyone know if the insurgents paid for the software, or did they just pirate it from some torrent site, also I think highly unlikely that the said insurgents are paying their subscription for satellite TV.

Perhaps it's high time to send in some hotshot Hollywood lawyer in there to serve some DMCA takedown notices.