United States Drone Hacked by Iraqi’s with a 26 Dollar Program

United States Drone Hacked by Iraqi’s with a 26 Dollar Program

The technology I will be discussing in this post is the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator,an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States military. This five million dollar vehicle is not only a fully functional unmanned plane but it can fire two hellfire missiles, travels over 2,000 miles in one trip, and, most importantly, projects a live video feed of the ground it flies 25,000 feet above. This is a huge asset to our government and has played a pivotal in our recent battles against Iran and Afghanistan.

Another technology that is relevant to this topic is an offline satellite internet downloader called “SkyGrabber”. SkyGrabber was written by a Russian programmer in Ukraine. SkyGrabber is a simple enough concept: grab the signals that spill from a satellite broadcast (or even narrowcast), aimed from a satellite towards a specific location, and turn them into TV feeds you can look at. Or as the website puts it: "You don't have to keep an online internet connection. Just customize your satellite dish to a selected satellite provider and start grabbing."

Having an asset such has the drone, there are many goals our country should expect and ensure. Confidentiality in the drone so that no one else can access its information or controls, accessibility so we, the United States, can access the drones collected data, and Integrity of the data the drone may collect to ensure proper analysis of foreign countries and possible threats. Maybe no one could’ve imagined the United States defense being infiltrated but we failed to recognize the threats of hackers.

It was recently reported that militants in Iraq used this $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. It is obvious that the goal of the militants is to disclose the information to their people, alter the feeds seen by their enemy, or even denial of service to the United States at all. Although the droid is a huge benefit to our country, it could be a huge hit if it were to be used against us.

US drones send their video up to a US military satellite (the "uplink") that cannot be intercepted. The signal is then beamed by that satellite or a linked down to the controllers – who might be in Afghanistan or Iraq. Although it sounds difficult, the signal was completely UNENCRYPTED! Basically anyone with a satellite dish and the right frequency and location could pick up the signal. Although only the video link was intercepted, experts say that taking control of the plane from an outside signal is not much more difficult than intercepting the video feed. It is vital that the United States encrypt all their data, no matter what the cost.