Americans are not smart 101 - Drone hacking

[w1z4rd]

WASHINGTON -- 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.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

Seriously... thats the dumbest dumb dumb dumb I have come across in a long time. Who the hell makes advanced weapons and surveillance unmanned drones and doesnt bother to encrypt the feed? Seriously?!

I cant get over the complete lack of intelligence in this....

I can just imagine Islamist insurgents in Iraq... " ok here it comes.... here it comes.... move the camel a bit to the left.... Allah Akbar! Free hotspot!... *types www.ratemycamel.com*"

 

[PeterCH]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

Seriously... thats the dumbest dumb dumb dumb I have come across in a long time. Who the hell makes advanced weapons and surveillance unmanned drones and doesnt bother to encrypt the feed? Seriously?!

I cant get over the complete lack of intelligence in this....

I can just imagine Islamist insurgents in Iraq... " ok here it comes.... here it comes.... move the camel a bit to the left.... Allah Akbar! Free hotspot!... *types www.ratemycamel.com*"

Maybe, just maybe they're not as dumb as they let on. Maybe this is a pentagon leak designed to boost the defence budget or maybe the maker of the drone wants cash for upgrades and have put out such a leak.

Of course I'm sure you're qualified to comment, you seem to be an expert on everything.

 

[w1z4rd]

Maybe, just maybe they're not as dumb as they let on. Maybe this is a pentagon leak designed to boost the defence budget or maybe the maker of the drone wants cash for upgrades and have put out such a leak.

Of course I'm sure you're qualified to comment, you seem to be an expert on everything.

... hey.. the love emoticon is useful after all.

It was probably designed by people with macs

I know enough about encryption to know how to secure wireless signal

 

[daveza]

They will probably want to extradite these hackers as well.

I think it will be a little more difficult than the British lad.

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.

Wrong....

 

[w1z4rd]

They will probably want to extradite these hackers as well.

I think it will be a little more difficult than the British lad.

Im not even sure if this fully qualifies as hacking.. its an unencrypted steam. You just need to point a dish in the right direction and tap into the data.

 

[PeterCH]

... hey.. the love emoticon is useful after all.

It was probably designed by people with macs

I know enough about encryption to know how to secure wireless signal

But you know zero about the military, strategy and pentagon shena****ns.

The US has by far the strongest military force and has the most advanced tech as well as the most brilliant people. I would hardly think they'd do something stupid. BTW enjoying your Microsoft Windows (made in the USA)?

 

[Alan]

Good see the bigoted prejudice is still in vogue....


Anyway it's a bit late for the militants. Most of the leadership has been blown away already by the drones....

 

[PeterCH]

Good see the bigoted prejudice is still in vogue....


Anyway it's a bit late for the militants. Most of the leadership has been blown away already by the drones....

Who else uses drones to such an extent? Even the Russians are now buying Israeli drones because the future of aerial combat won't be human pilots pushing 10g's but drones doing even better.

So they'll recall some of them and install some expensive encryption circuits.

 

[w1z4rd]

Or even buy cheap ones for like R100.

 

[daveza]

But you know zero about the military, strategy and pentagon shena****ns.

The US has by far the strongest military force and has the most advanced tech as well as the most brilliant people.

Is this the same brilliant people with the most advanced tech who were hacked by the British hacker using default passwords?

I would hardly think they'd do something stupid.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126102247889095011.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories

A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a shortcoming to the security of the drone network.

"There did appear to be a vulnerability," the defense official said.

And another something stupid -

Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as with the Predators,

 

[PeterCH]

Or even buy cheap ones for like R100.

Somebody leaked this - someone's gonna get rich. It won't be cheap circuits.

 

[PeterCH]

Is this the same brilliant people with the most advanced tech who were hacked by the British hacker using default passwords?

And what did he hack? I heard it wasn't anything important. NORAD won't be accessible by telnet, don't worry.

UK government makes screw ups all the time. They lose secret data all the time.

 

[daveza]

So they'll recall some of them and install some expensive encryption circuits.

Not that quick and easy.

The difficulty, officials said, is that adding encryption to a network that is more than a decade old involves more than placing a new piece of equipment on individual drones. Instead, many components of the network linking the drones to their operators in the U.S., Afghanistan or Pakistan have to be upgraded to handle the changes

And they've been aware of the vulnerability for over 10 years .

 

[w1z4rd]

telnet is a mostly dead tech, no one really uses it. The in thing (last 10 years) is SSH.

 

[Alan]

Who else uses drones to such an extent? Even the Russians are now buying Israeli drones because the future of aerial combat won't be human pilots pushing 10g's but drones doing even better.

So they'll recall some of them and install some expensive encryption circuits.

As if militants are all running around with laptops :erm:

From the comments section.....

Nah, at least let them watch themselves getting bombed in free

 

[daveza]

And what did he hack? I heard it wasn't anything important. NORAD won't be accessible by telnet, don't worry.

The US seem to think it was important.

The Glasgow-born systems administrator, who attended Highgate Wood Secondary School in north London, is accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002, using the name 'Solo'.

The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defense, and the US Air Force.

The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours, as well as deleting US Navy Weapons logs, rendering a naval base's network of 300 computers inoperable after the September 11th terrorist attacks. They claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was $700,000

 

[PeterCH]

The US seem to think it was important.

Of course they will. They can't just let this clown get away with it. Even if he got into payroll computers and logs of who checked out which sub-machine gun for the firing range, they'll still want to enforce the deterrence factor. Violate our security? We'll violate you, even if you're in the UK.

 

[killadoob]

Maybe, just maybe they're not as dumb as they let on. Maybe this is a pentagon leak designed to boost the defence budget or maybe the maker of the drone wants cash for upgrades and have put out such a leak.

Of course I'm sure you're qualified to comment, you seem to be an expert on everything.

No they are dumb.

Brawn very little brain . Proved this over and over.

Why would they leak this to boost their budget? If anything it makes them look stupid, i guess being stupid may mean more money in the US though.

Seems to have worked for a number of decades now .

 

[PeterCH]

No they are dumb.

Brawn very little brain . Proved this over and over.

Why would they leak this to boost their budget? If anything it makes them look stupid, i guess being stupid may mean more money in the US though.

Seems to have worked for a number of decades now .

LOL, you're typing on a computer designed in the US, using software designed in the US on a network designed in the US. What has your country done?

 

[daveza]

Of course they will. They can't just let this clown get away with it. Even if he got into payroll computers and logs of who checked out which sub-machine gun for the firing range, they'll still want to enforce the deterrence factor. Violate our security? We'll violate you, even if you're in the UK.

So which one is it - it was important or it wasn't important ?

Whichever, the US military were hacked with default passwords which makes a myth of their advanced tech and brilliant people doesn't it.