Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
Well, not really hacked since the link from the drone to the ground isn't encrypted at all.
Well, not really hacked since the link from the drone to the ground isn't encrypted at all.
They haven't taken control of them or anything, but they can watch the video they transmit. Why not encrypt it? Because the insurgents are too stupid to figure it out. And it would have cost more.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.
Nice work.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.
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Fixing the security gap would have caused delays, according to current and former military officials. It would have added to the Predator's price. Some officials worried that adding encryption would make it harder to quickly share time-sensitive data within the U.S. military, and with allies.