Militants in Iraq intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones

[Warmtoast]

Interesting story from the Wall Street Journal reporting that militants in Iraq use $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones.

Read more here: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones - WSJ.com

[Roger Sofarover]

"Necessity is the mother of invention"

Now who said that?

[MightyGem]

On the BBC as well:
BBC News - Iraq insurgents 'hack into video feeds from US drones'

The unnamed official said the US defence department had addressed the issue by working to encrypt all video feeds provided by drones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Now, you would have thought that they'd have done that from the beginning.

[SASless]

Encrypt video....why Sir....why would anyone want to do that?

On the flip side....can you imagine watching Tele one night....and seeing your house on the screen with a set of cross hairs centered thereupon...and hear the words...."Missle Away!...Five...Four...Three....Two....KERBOOOOOOM!!!"

[alisoncc]

On the flip side....can you imagine watching Tele one night....and seeing your house on the screen with a set of cross hairs centered thereupon...and hear the words...."Missle Away!...Five...Four...Three....Two....KERBOOOOOOM! !!"

As long as it's not your house, it could be more interesting than much of the rubbish they show these days. Imagine that as a reallity TV show - using GoogleEarth send the co-ordinates in of someone you have an intense dislike for, and if you answer a question correctly a drone will be dispatched.

[Jeep]

There is no way that the video feed was unencrypted right?

[Grabbers]

You could put different addresses up for public vote:

Dial 0907 Cyclops for No 10 Downing Street
Dial 0907 Trousers for Cowell Towers
Dial (you get the drift...)

[vernon99]

I wonder how long they have known about this?

They could use it to transmit false video feeds, to flush 'em out!

You could show video footage of a "downed" helicopter somewhere easily identifiable, and wait for the insurgents to turn up, thinking it will be a turkey shoot, not knowing they are right, except they are the turkeys!

[BEagle]

That's like the wonderful sting the Gardai once sprung in Eire.

It seems that a huge number of pirated satellite viewing cards were in circulation. So the Gardai arranged a short commercial, promising all sorts of goodies to anyone who turned up at some hotel on a particular night.....


.....which could only be seen by someone with a pirated card.

Lots of people turned up and all were prosecuted....RESULT!

I'd do the same for people who use illegal music downloads. Offer an unlimited download software product for £4.99. Which, after 24 hours, reports the computer IP to the rozzers, then reformats the hard drive. Take advantage of greed and use it to your advantage.

Seriously, if the Spams used their other neurone, they could have all sorts of fun confusing the stone age religious zealots with time delayed video.

One of the best comms jamming tricks I ever heard was a recording of the same circuit made a few hours earlier - confused the heck out of everyone!

[SASless]

It is not just drones that have this problem.....

Not Just Drones: Militants Can Snoop on Most U.S. Warplanes (Updated) | Danger Room | Wired.com

[parabellum]

Isn't it a bit like not wearing a blindfold in front of the firing squad?

[The B Word]

It's only the ROVER feed to the ground that might be picked up, but the high quality "pred porn" going via satellite to the ops rooms and their JTACs is encrypted. Also, you can turn ROVER off if you don't want anyone to see it (or only turn it on 30 seconds prior to "going hot"!). Finally, they are unable to "take control" of the air vehicles as intimated in some articles on this subject.

Almost a none story this one...

B Word

[t43562]

Detection

What interests me is how easy it would be to build a "Drone detector" for high-level people who needed a bit of time to hide or escape?

Not as hard or as dangerous as having a radar, I assume.

[VinRouge]

I can just imagine Abdul sat in front of his Laptop, downloading some camel p0rn, when all of a sudden he realises that he can watch pred feed.

"If Calsberg did Sky for Terrorists".....

[Lima Juliet]

t43562

What interests me is how easy it would be to build a "Drone detector" for high-level people who needed a bit of time to hide or escape?

You only turn the ROVER feed on when you need it - if you want to sneak up on you don't turn it on!

Even if they did detect the link and not look at it, there's no guarantee that it is them being watched. Anyway, it would be easier to get someone to watch the airbase and e-mail/text when one is airborne.

Sorry, fella, that's a rubbish idea!

LJ

[t43562]

Quote:
What interests me is how easy it would be to build a "Drone detector" for high-level people who needed a bit of time to hide or escape?
You only turn the ROVER feed on when you need it - if you want to sneak up on you don't turn it on!

Even if they did detect the link and not look at it, there's no guarantee that it is them being watched. Anyway, it would be easier to get someone to watch the airbase and e-mail/text when one is airborne.

Sorry, fella, that's a rubbish idea!

I know absolutely nothing about this but I can suppose:

I suppose that since the signal is short range there is no chance that it isn't looking for you in a country the size of Afghanistan or Pakistan.

I suppose that the airbase watchers have some use but since the kind of UAVs that take off from airbases have a long endurance(?) they could be going to lots of different places no matter what their heading is after takeoff.

The transmission may be on for only a short time but I don't know how short is short. Imagine it's a single minute - that might be enough time to jump into some sort of shelter which might just be good enough to survive or hide. The presence of a drone is an indicator that you are about to be attacked by nearby ground forces if you don't know that already.

But like I said I really know nothing and I expect that there are half-a-dozen reasons why it's not likely to be an issue.

[The B Word]

What LJ is trying to say is that there are so many ROVER feeds blatting out in theatre that a detector would go off every 2 minutes - your insurgent would be constantly taking cover! Therefore, he's saying it is just as useful as monitoring an airfield for take-off and recoveries.

My spin on this is that it is a "storm in a teacup", lots of assets use ROVER feed and not just "drones" (which is an incorrect term as this applies to target aircraft - from one of the very first, the De Havilland Queen Bee). It is a known limfac and is managed accordingly until the release of the latest ROVER units to our ground forces (have a look at the L-3 website for more info L-3 Communications -> Products & Services -> ROVER 5 Handheld) are released. There's not a lot of point encrypting the ROVER feed if no-one has the capability to receive it on the ground

The B Word

[t43562]

Ok, I was thinking of the high-level TB commander sitting safely across the border in Pakistan far from the fighting (who might be the subject of a cross-border strike). I can understand that this sort of thing would have no use for people in hot areas.

[BEagle]

(which is an incorrect term as this applies to target aircraft - from one of the very first, the De Havilland Queen Bee)

Not according to the dictionary, B-word:

drone n
1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Zoology) a male bee in a colony of social bees, whose sole function is to mate with the queen
2. Brit a person who lives off the work of others
3. (Engineering / Aeronautics) a pilotless radio-controlled aircraft

[Old English drān; related to Old High German treno drone, Gothic drunjus noise, Greek tenthrēnē wasp]

dronish adj

I suspect that the press has got fed up with the Spams and the Rental Aeromodel Farce inventing new abbreviations and acronyms for pilotless aircraft every few weeks - so they've settled on the simpler term drone.

[Backwards PLT]

Quote:
(which is an incorrect term as this applies to target aircraft - from one of the very first, the De Havilland Queen Bee)
Not according to the dictionary, B-word:

Quote:
drone n
1. (Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Zoology) a male bee in a colony of social bees, whose sole function is to mate with the queen
2. Brit a person who lives off the work of others
3. (Engineering / Aeronautics) a pilotless radio-controlled aircraft

[Old English drān; related to Old High German treno drone, Gothic drunjus noise, Greek tenthrēnē wasp]

dronish adj
I suspect that the press has got fed up with the Spams and the Rental Aeromodel Farce inventing new abbreviations and acronyms for pilotless aircraft every few weeks - so they've settled on the simpler term drone.

I think you just reinforced his point BEagle. The aircraft aren't pilotless. This emphasises the whole problem, of course - people who have no idea of what UAVs do or how they are operated are pushing their uninformed opinions. How about looking at what pilots of all aircraft actually do, see what skillsets are required then define them that way? Of course the problem with that is, the passed over tristar types might be extremely disappointed to see themselves much further down the list than UAV operators.

And while I'm on a rant the term UAS is still erroneously used even by many who should know better. The Air Vehicle is unmanned (and unwomanned) but the System most certainly is not - at least for Reaper. Every UAV is different.

Merry Xmas