Iraqi resistance hacks into US drones

[RedRalph]

From BBC

Insurgents in Iraq have hacked into live video feeds from unmanned American drone aircraft, US media reports say.

Shia fighters are said to have used off-the-shelf software programs such as SkyGrabber to capture the footage.

The hacking was possible because the remotely flown planes have an unprotected communications link.

Obtaining such video feeds could provide insurgents with information about sites the military might be planning to target.

The breach of the Pentagon surveillance system's security is said to have come to light when footage shot by a Predator drone was found on the laptop of an apprehended Iraqi insurgent.

A senior Pentagon official is quoted as saying that although militants were able to view the video, there was no evidence that they were able to jam electronic signals from the aircraft or take control of them.

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.

Predator drones can fly for several hours, remotely controlled by pilots thousands of miles away. The aircraft can carry out surveillance and attack targets with on-board missiles.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the US military continually evaluated the technologies it used and quickly corrected any potential problems it discovered.

"There's potential vulnerabilities in all of our systems," he said.

Surprising. I wouldnt have thought this could be done... didn't Patroklos say a while ago that no military hardware could be hacked?

 

[Karalysia]

It's crazy that they were able to use civilian software to hack military hardware. And that the fact it was unprotected.

 

[warpus]

The hacking was possible because the remotely flown planes have an unprotected communications link.

If it's unprotected, I would hardly call it "hacking".

 

[MobBoss]

RRW how many times have you been asked to include links in your OP? Please do so. Its not like its hard or anything.

 

[illram]

So this is kind of like stealing my Predator drone care package in Call of Duty, complete with the terrorist on the little laptop and everything. That is SO annoying.

 

[Ecofarm]

Iraqi "resistence". Hah. Cute.

 

[Defiant47]

The hacking was possible because the remotely flown planes have an unprotected communications link.

WTH, US Military?

RRW how many times have you been asked to include links in your OP? Please do so. Its not like its hard or anything.

Seconded

 

[BSmith1068]

Guys - It's not very hard to find...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8419147.stm

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

And it's not that hard either for the OP to put up a link. Anyway, going to have to echo what Defiant47 said. Even if they can only get the video feed, that's still information that helps them.

So this is kind of like stealing my Predator drone care package in Call of Duty, complete with the terrorist on the little laptop and everything.

Life imitating fiction.

 

[RedRalph]

So, anyone care to speculate how the US military could have been so stupid as to leave this link unprotected?

Patroklos? Amirite in suspecting you say this doesnt contradict anything you have said previously?

 

[Newbunkle]

Admin
Password

 

[Patroklos]

Surprising. I wouldnt have thought this could be done... didn't Patroklos say a while ago that no military hardware could be hacked?

Thats not what I was talking about and you know it. I was talking about HQs, major aircraft, ships and the like and for the purposes of that discussion we were talking about taking control of (specifically nuclear missiles) and using them against their owners. Furthermore we were talking about SECRET/TS/NNPPnet networks, I specifically stated that resources were not wasted to fully secure lower priority networks. My government issued cell phone can be hacked as easily as yours, and for the same reason the insurgents can accomplish this; intercepting an unencrypted signal.

They are obviously talking about hand held tactical or locally launched drone type used by tactical units, not Global Hawk and the like. These are like little remote controlled planes built to be cheap, disposable, and easily usable by the lowest common denominator. I would like confirmation of this however.

At that level the military is just using cheap and reliable commercial equipment of short term intel, it would be entirely too difficult and ultimately ineffecient and wasteful to encrypt that sort of link. Or they may encrypt it but not to a level that it is impervious. There are literally THOUSANDS of such drones in operation in Iraq and Afghanistan, you can't make everything invincible. Its the same reason most police radio transmissions are not encrypted either.

This is a non story, just an over reaction by people who watch too many movies and play too many video games who assume everything we use is some billion dollare gold plated miracle machine. My military cell phone is literally exactly like your commercial cell phone, I bought it directly from Verizon online the same way you would.

 

[Defiant47]

Thats not what I was talking about and you know it. I was talking about tanks, major aircraft, ships and the like. My government issued cell phone can be hacked as easily as yours, and for the same reason the insurgents can accomplish this.

The are obviously talking about hand held tactical or locally launched drone type used by tactical units, not Preditors/Avengers/Global Hawl/Firescout. Thes are like little remote controlled planes built to be cheap, disposable, and easily usable by the lowest common denominator. I would like confirmation of this however.

At that level the military is just using cheap and reliable commercial equipment of short term intel, it would be entirely too difficult and ultimately ineffecient and wasteful to encrypt that sort of link. There are literally THOUSANDS of such drones in operation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its the same reason most police radio transmissions are not encrypted either.

This is a non story, just an over reaction by people who watch too many movies and play too many video games who assume everything we use is some billion dollare gold plated miracle machine. My military cell phone is literally exactly like your commercial cell phone, I bought it directly from Verizon online the same way you would.

Do you communicate tactical data through your easily-hacked government-issued cell phone, that could be used to set a trap or ambush and eliminate your entire squad?

The inherent reasoning behind all of this is irrelevant. The potential consequences are not.

 

[Patroklos]

Do you communicate tactical data through your easily-hacked government-issued cell phone, that could be used to set a trap or ambush and eliminate your entire squad?

Of course not, but the squad level radios the average army patrol has with minimal encrypting sure does. Just as the unecrypted radios your average police officer uses does. At some point implementing full proof encryption becomes such a pain in the butt that doing so in and of intself degrades effectivness. Its a judgement call, and you strike a balance on the basis of practicality.

You can't make yourself invincible, and if you attempt to you will find at some point your efforts to do so will have the opposite effect.

Also, everyone here look up the concept of "gold plating," it is the natural inclination of military types and you have to actively keep yourself from getting lost in it.

The inherent reasoning behind all of this is irrelevant. The potential consequences are not.

What are the consequences? Our enemy is not ********, they are trying their best to kill us, and no matter what we do they will find ways to gain the upper hand to some degree. This particular one is one of the most trivial I have heard of. They will find these sorts of things occasionally, and we react to them. That doesn't mean there was some sort of massive failure.

 

[Ecofarm]

Just make the drones freq-hop and send photos in pieces? I doubt the insurgents can keep up with a US freq-hop, and make pieces useless.

It makes having one captured worse though...

I think that is the problem. Any encryption/freq gear on them must bear capture.

 

[Defiant47]

Of course not, but the squad level radios the average army patrol has with minimal encrypting sure does. Just as the unecrypted radios your average police officer uses does. At some point implementing full proof encryption becomes such a pain in the butt that doing so in and of intself degrades effectivness. Its a judgement call, and you strike a balance on the basis of practicality.

You can't make yourself invincible, and if you attempt to you will find at some point your efforts to do so will have the opposite effect.

Also, everyone here look up the concept of "gold plating," it is the natural inclination of military types and you have to actively keep yourself from getting lost in it.

Police officers are not in a state of all-out war, expecting a blazing gunfight at every corner. It is not analogous.

I'm not suggesting the extreme, which is that we should encrypt to ridiculous levels such that it defeats the purpose (i.e. I'm taking down this strawman). I'm just very concerned that tactical data that could be used to majorly screw over our troops if not outright eliminate them, could be too easily acquired.

Granted, so long as the level of encryption is sufficient, there's little incentive or reason to increase it. However, we can see that it has already been shown to be too little currently. So either we take steps to ramp up the security of our communications links, or decree that the costs would be too hefty and not worth ensuring our enemies do not know where our troops are at any given moment, and where we think the enemies are.

I don't know, it could be possible that our technology (weapons, armor...) is so advanced that even with full intel our enemies cannot destroy us. But I doubt that is true currently, and as such we should start taking steps to start cutting that intel.

What are the consequences? Our enemy is not ********, they are trying their best to kill us, and no matter what we do they will find ways to gain the upper hand to some degree.

The consequences are the lives of soldiers.

This particular one is one of the most trivial I have heard of. They will find these sorts of things occasionally, and we react to them. That doesn't mean there was some sort of massive failure.

A valid point, but there must be at least a little bit of foresight of what the enemy might try to do to get the upper hand. Low-level encryption radios seems feasible enough until the enemy starts pumping lots of effort into decryption, warranting medium-level encryption radios. No-level encryption sensor units seems unsound from the very get-go, before the enemy even got the idea that they could try to hack into them.

Yes, it is appropriate to have an effective level of encryption on most things until a higher level is warranted. However, a small degree of vigilance is also in order.

 

[Gooblah]

Wall Street Journal ran this as their top-of-the-front-page story today.

KInda chilling. For now, they can only see what we see, but that still has the potential to somewhat level the playing field - if they know where we're headed, they can avoid us/set up ambushes, etc. There are also suspected links to Iran noted in the WSJ article. The rest of the systems are secured though (control, etc.), so I don't think this will escalate, but it's still a problem that should be fixed IMO.

 

[GenMarshall]

I have one thing to say...

 

[J-man]

I wonder what else is left unprotected by the US military...
This is a blunder.

 

[Patroklos]

Did you guys know the military compound I work in doesn't have armed patrols securing the perimeter? No guard dogs either. No electric fences. No fences at all actually. In fact not a single member of the military is even armed! On top of that there are no fire arms here period!

Metal Gear is a video game gentlemen. The real world does not opperate like a video game.

It is actually hilarious to watch some of the same people here who talk about the US having a bloated military with too many and too expensive toys jump on every instance of the US not having the most advanced and expensive equipment in use for every little thing be some sort of blunder. Its sureal actually.

Did you know that I, a member of the US military, is forced to use ball point pens instead of gel!