RSS Feed MenuThe headlines read:
Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected
When I heard this story on Thursday I thought right away, ‘this isn’t such a big deal.’ If for no other reason than live video isn’t encrypted.
Text and voice signal can be encrypted, but video is such a LARGE bundle of one’s and zero’s that it’s hard to send live in the first place. Trying to encrypt and send live video – well, I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’d be damn hard to achieve.
Live video eats up so much signal and bandwidth on the electromagnetic spectrum, that it’s hard for ground pounders to even get a frequency to use video, never mind the power source necessary to send the stuff.
But I’m just a lowly knuckledragging Neanderthal, what do I know? SO . . . I ran it past the team techie – our “Q” – and he confirmed what I already suspected: video can’t be encrypted (as far as he knows, and he knows a LOT). Ergo this is NOT hacking, this is eavesdropping:
This from the AP:
Dale Meyerrose, former chief information officer for the U.S. intelligence community, compared the problem to street criminals listening to police scanners.
“This was just one of the signals, a broadcast signal, and there was no hacking. It is the interception of a broadcast signal,” said Meyerrose, who worked to field the unmanned systems in the 1990s, when he was a senior Air Force officer.
The problem, he said, is that when the drones were first being developed they were using commercial equipment, which as time goes on could become vulnerable to intercepts.
There is a tendency to de-humanize your enemies, and to underestimate them – especially if they are Asians or Africans. The Taliban have displayed some ingenuity here, granted, but this does not put them in the same category as the SpyKids.
Originally posted at STORMBRINGER.
sinz54 // Dec 19, 2009 at 11:01 am
Linnane: Trying to encrypt and send live video – well, I won’t say it’s impossible, but it’d be damn hard to achieve.
There are commercial products that can do this today.
The problem is that long lead time with any Government system–when they first developed these drones back in the 1990s, those commercial encrypted video products did not yet exist.
teabag // Dec 19, 2009 at 11:02 am
“There is a tendency to de-humanize your enemies, and to underestimate them – especially if they are Asians or Africans. ”
Yep them brown and black people can surprise you sometimes! How did they ever get to make all those inventions at the time white people were still in caves.
Boggles the mind of a Ra***t
MI-GOPer // Dec 19, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Sean, thanks for pointing out the nonsense of this story.
I wonder why it is that the left-leaning media love to manufacture these over-hyped stories? FoxNews, for instance, reported on the story and on-air talent and experts basically shot holes in the story for 90 seconds. MSNBC “News” did a series of finger-wagging, head-shaking tsk-tsk’ing “reports” that ended with the same theme: billions spent on defense are wasted tax dollars. Rachel MadCow ended her piece with “one drone could feed a neighborhood block full of Americans for a year.” WTF?
No offense to Rachel’s far Left democrat sensibilities, but one Ca$h4Clunker deal could have housed 2 homeless families for a yr or fed the same neighborhood. One Stimulus Spending Spree “job” could have housed, fed and provided free 4 yr college education for that neighborhood block!
Could it be that the media, like far Left democrat activists on this site (hint, BarryS/TeaBag character), really hate the military so much that any chance to get in a dig or twist the knife can’t be passed by?
Or is it that the media and far Left have greater affinity with their terrorist buddies and other enemies of America than they do the men & women fighting on the front lines, assisting in the drone missions?
I get that they really hate America –and especially suburban, white, middle class America. But does it have to extend to our military? Is it really all about showing up the military as incompetent fools? Or is it about undercutting the mission?
‘Cause it sure as hell ain’t about the “news”.
andydp // Dec 19, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Many years ago when I was an ROTC Cadet, one Sergeant was speaking to us about GI’s marrying locals. When they got to the US, many would have marital problems. The gist of his talk was “Just because they don’t speak English doesn’t mean they’re stupid.”
MI: The fact is the story has a lot of “shock value:” ie “Ragheads living in caves tapping into our drone feeds”. Nothing I’ve read said the gov’t was lacking in anything. All it said was software was available on the internet implying anyone can see a live feed. I doubt it has anything to do with calling our military idiots. or hating the USA.
The story was broken by that “left leaning mouthpiece” the WSJ this past Thursday. Basically I see it as a way to force somebody correct the problem: The IG in me would say Sir: you have a problem here. You need to fix it, here’s some solutions.
A follow up article on p A4 of the Dec 18 WSJ emphasized part of the problem was, we still do not have a White House Cybersecurity person.
MI: the majority of the “Hate USA, let’s revolt now” stuff I’ve seen has been in the right leaning web sites. Like these two postings from Michelle Malkin’s site:
On December 19th, 2009 at 1:27 pm, tevans776 said:
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. … God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion; what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Or:
On December 19th, 2009 at 12:09 pm, southdakotaboy said:
We need to get blunt with these traitors. They need to be put if free of their lives to remind them that they work for us or we reserve not only the right to vote them out but the right to kill them.
teabag // Dec 19, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Talking about Mi-Goper and Liars, which he is.
Factcheck.org did their liars of the year award. Guess who were in first and second place.
No1 Sarah “mooselini” Palin for her death panels BS.
No2 Glen Beck for just about anything he has ever said.
Yay wingnut liars rule.
Zilu // Dec 19, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I did not read this report in the WSJ thinking that it was a far-left effort at attacking the military. Did Rupert Murdock sell the WSJ when I wasn’t looking?
Carney // Dec 20, 2009 at 12:37 am
If live video can’t be encrypted, how do cable and satellite TV companies make any money? How do they avoid rampant piracy?
SFTor1 // Dec 20, 2009 at 1:45 am
I can’t believe this site chooses to debate such trifling matters when crazies in Copenhagen want to spend our hard-earned money on boondoggles. This Democrat says get into Copenhagen and Climategate. It’s a scandal in need of fresh air and sunlight.
The Pentagon will take care of itself.
ryanb // Dec 20, 2009 at 2:02 am
To set the record straight, encrypting video is trivial today. Free software can do it on standard computer hardware.
jakester // Dec 20, 2009 at 5:30 am
Teabag, your right , while whitey was living in caves walking on all fours and eating each other, the blacks were using microchip technology and had supersonic manned flight in Africa. Then whitey came one day and stole it all, including their brains. How can anyone go to any technical school these days, especially in the grad department, and not notice that almost a third of the students take prayer breaks 5 times a day? The Islamicists may be twisted, but stupid they ain’t
sinz54 // Dec 20, 2009 at 9:08 am
ryanb: To set the record straight, encrypting video is trivial today. Free software can do it on standard computer hardware.
Have you ever worked on a government procurement project?
It takes over ten years to develop anything. The drones we’re using today were designed in the 1990s–that’s why they don’t have the latest stuff like encryption.
MI-GOPer // Dec 20, 2009 at 10:00 am
andydp, I’m sorry your reading list and sources for news information is so slim… which is the only way to explain how you missed the repeated slams against the military by the liberally-biased MSM… you could have read:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/hacked-drones-secure-us-spy-planes/story?id=9366687&page=2
or yahoo’s “news” story that spun it as “raising” serious doubts about our military’s security of intellegence gathering systems
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091217/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestusweaponsiranafghanistan
or AirAmerica’s sneering left-wing, anti-military snide slap
http://airamerica.com/liveinwashingtonwithjackrice/blog/12-18-2009/listen-militants-hacking-predator-drones/
or Daily Kos-sacks contending it’s such a waste of money:
http://www-dcfightsback-org.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/17/19301/407
And on and on and on it goes. That you didn’t read the far Left bias spin on this story says more about you than whether or not it exists.
MI-GOPer // Dec 20, 2009 at 10:10 am
TeaBag/BarryS/Balconesfault –and all the other characters this troll posts under says: “Factcheck.org did their liars of the year award. Guess who were in first and second place. No1 Sarah “mooselini” Palin for her death panels BS. No2 Glen Beck for just about anything he has ever said. Yay wingnut liars rule”.
When in the shooting gallery down near the targets, the same old tired far Left democrat activist troll tactic is “Look, a Palin sighting!!!” “Glenn Beck’s a Republican!!”.
Which is ok since Palin’s favorable ratings are now higher than Obama’s. Cheney’s was higher than Gore’s or Biden’s in their respective 1st years. And Glenn Beck just took the #2 spot at the very popular and dominant FoxNews… even with the far Left democrat activists waging a full scale boycott of him and demanding sponsors leave his show OR ELSE!
By the way, you bring up a perrenial problem associated with all your posting characters here: Wasn’t it you, TeaBag, that said Beck was toast when the boycott was announced? Wasn’t it you, TeaBag, who said Beck was fired by FoxNews and had an on-air implosion that led to his ouster? Wasn’t it you who said Beck’s radio audience was smaller than AirAmerica?
Hey, that whole lying thing is working for you. I don’t need to resort to those far Left troll tactics… I just use the truth and your own words to paste you to the wall, boi.
Drones are effective tools. They work. The problem of hacking video feeds was fixed some time ago by the military. This is a story about slamming the military –a favorite occupation of the far Left and democrats. Truth hurts.
ryanb // Dec 20, 2009 at 11:07 am
Sinz54, you already made that point and nobody is disagreeing.
Zilu // Dec 20, 2009 at 11:09 am
“The problem of hacking video feeds was fixed some time ago by the military. This is a story about slamming the military –a favorite occupation of the far Left and democrats. Truth hurts.”
Again…in the WSJ?
andydp // Dec 20, 2009 at 6:39 pm
I thought the readers would like to read an article from another “left wing, liberal, mouthpiece” the Army Times:
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/army_uav_hack_122009w/
Frankly, they’re harder on the organization than the WSJ. Here’s something that WASN’T in the WSJ:
“We noticed a trend when going after these guys; that sometimes they seemed to have better early warning” of U.S. actions, said the officer briefed on the raid. “We went and did a raid on one of their safe houses and found all of this equipment that was highly technical, highly sophisticated. It was more sophisticated than any other equipment we’d seen Iraqi insurgents use.”
The militia, known as Kata’ib Hezbollah based out of Sadr City, Baghdad, has long been suspected of being a surrogate for Iran’s Quds Force, the wing of the Iranian Army responsible for conducting clandestine warfare outside of Iran via various insurgent groups.
“It was the technological know-how to make the antennas, computers and software go together and pick up the appropriate bands that was impressive,” the officer said.
teabag // Dec 20, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Mi-GOPer lies again.
“By the way, you bring up a perrenial problem associated with all your posting characters here: Wasn’t it you, TeaBag, that said Beck was toast when the boycott was announced? Wasn’t it you, TeaBag, who said Beck was fired by FoxNews and had an on-air implosion that led to his ouster? Wasn’t it you who said Beck’s radio audience was smaller than AirAmerica?”
No, No and No. Please point me to the place where I am supposed to have said these things. You are a complete liar like Palin and Beck.
teabag // Dec 20, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Of all the falsehoods and distortions in the political discourse this year, one stood out from the rest.
“Death panels.”
The claim set political debate afire when it was made in August, raising issues from the role of government in health care to the bounds of acceptable political discussion. In a nod to the way technology has transformed politics, the statement wasn’t made in an interview or a television ad. Sarah Palin posted it on her Facebook page.
Her assertion — that the government would set up boards to determine whether seniors and the disabled were worthy of care — spread through newscasts, talk shows, blogs and town hall meetings. Opponents of health care legislation said it revealed the real goals of the Democratic proposals. Advocates for health reform said it showed the depths to which their opponents would sink. Still others scratched their heads and said, “Death panels? Really?”
The editors of PolitiFact.com, the fact-checking Web site of the St. Petersburg Times, have chosen it as our inaugural “Lie of the Year.”
kosovochavo // Dec 21, 2009 at 2:49 am
I think it is core to the American spirit to root for the underdog. I have relatives fighting in Afghanistan and I hope they all come home safe but its hard to root for the drone pilots sitting in some command center in LA drinking energy drinks lounging in their computer chairs fingers stained with cheetos. Its hard to accept the “collateral damage” where entire families are killed because of false intelligence an Al Qaeda was there or even when they get one but many civilians are killed. It is hard for someone like me raised on an Army base who saluted the flag every day at 5:15 when they fired the cannon and took it down to stomach hearing about torture sexual abuse and rape at Abu Ghraib. Its hard to stomach hearing about a truck being bombed and exploding in a fireball that killed 140 civilians. It is easy to understand why many young men in Afghanistan fight us. Maybe they lost their mother brother sister father girlfriend wife friend. Maybe they want to defend their loved ones from being killed. Maybe they just hear the call of their native country to rise up and fight. We may not approve or understand their lifestyle but they are saying quite clearly give us liberty or give us death. America was born because a small group of men were brave enough and crazy enough to take on the most powerful empire on Earth. Thats what “conservatives” don’t get about “liberals” or even conservatives that oppose this disastrous war like Ron Paul, they love America but are afraid it is becoming what it is supposed to be against. The brutal murders of September 11th by a small criminal organization are being used as an excuse to bring bombs war and death to villages of illiterate weather hardened sheep herders with a millennia old warrior tradition who have never trusted respected or had much use for big governments including their own. The number of Afghans and Iraqis and even American soldiers killed now greatly outnumbers the deaths of September 11. The deaths from our bombing of Iraq in 1991 and our weapon give-away to Israel greatly outnumbered September 11. Even though Israel purposefully bombed and sunk one of our ships killing 34 American sailors (USS Liberty) These “Taliban” fighters are “conservatives” they believe in independence freedom god and the right to keep and bear arms and to fight off any invader. They don’t much care for our “democracy” and they know its a fraud because the election was stolen and the “presidents” brother is a major drug dealer, who is a paid informant of the CIA. Our government pays this guy while American soldiers die fighting the drug trade. Where’s the outrage. Our soldiers are being used and abused and lied to. can anyone tell the mothers of the fallen why they died without telling a hollow lie or making an appeal to unquestioning unthinking government is always right patriotism. Thats what I have to say to pro war conservatives. As conservatives you think you are standing up to oppressive government but you are really the biggest government dupes and those of you that support George Bush are supporters of the biggest big government creater of the last 50 years and the man or the administration that created the vast majority of the deficit that Reagan kicked off. I am not a Clinton fan at all but look at the numbers he balanced the budget. The Republican Party is the party of Lobbyists and showmen. They have attempted to corner the market on patriotism, their message is clear if you are not part of this party you are not a patriot. They have defined patriotism as don’t question your government, until of course a black democrat with a Muslim sounding name gets elected then question the hell out of your government and start brandishing guns at rallies. Would guns have been permitted anywhere near a Bush speech, hell no. The FBI interrogated a 12 year old in California because he said someone should have killed Bush. Thats another weakness of the Republican Party they can put a clown like Micheal Steele up there all they want its still a white party that appeals only to whites. The dark undercurrent of it trys to appeal to white voters by whispering those folks make us uncomfortable you too good join us. Of course that human road apple Glenn Beck doesn’t whisper and the “conservatives let him lead rallies and marches from behind the camera. From a media company that tells us that 120% of Americans don’t trust the climate change statistics. Sorry Fox I may not have paid much attention in high school but I was a good student in second grade. The Republican party needs some discipline the racist lunatics need to be shown the door. The crackpots who deny Obamas birth certificate need to be denounced as idiots. Obama popped out of the vagina of a woman whos ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War. Obama is a Son of the American Revolution. The Republican Party needs to embrace the fact that America has never been a white or a Christian country. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were closet Atheists among the protesters killed in the Boston Massacure was a black man named Crispus Attucks and the Native Americans were conquered more by disease than arms and subject to great injustices. The Southwest was also taken by force from Mexico, the Alamo was seized from Mexico by “illegal immigrants”. The reason so many illegal immigrants are here from Mexico is not because they want to steal our jobs or even because they like it here they are here because NAFTA ruined peoples jobs north and south of the border. They almost all work and those that are illegal almost always pay taxes for the work they do, and yet don’t receive most services making them a net plus to the deficit. Ask yourself why certain “ethnic enclaves” never vote Republican is it because their stupid, no, quite the opposite. The Democrats don’t do much for them either and as Obama looks more and more like he’s either floundering under pressure or selling out a radically fresh conservative movement may have a chance to appeal across race lines if it is willing to put aside the cheap tactics it uses to try to get white votes. If not all the Democratic Party needs is to get a sizeable minority of white votes, more often women and youth, along with the growing number of people of color who have no place in the Republican tent to win.
Carney // Dec 24, 2009 at 1:02 am
kosovochavo, you are full to bursting with anti American nonsense and falsehood.
First of all, learn to use the Enter or Return key and break up your paragraphs.
Second, you should be thankful that we can hurt and kill the barbarians with less risk to ourselves. We were not “underdogs” on D-Day or Okinawa, or in many other desperate and bloody conflicts; but would you have rooted for the Axis? Mindless rooting for the “underdog” means sometimes rooting for vicious mass murdering fanatics.
Third, Abu Ghraib was a propaganda bonanza for the enemy, but your showy wailing about it is less evidence of distress than of moral vanity and your deep enjoyment of smearing those who defend you with their bodies. People who know anything real about this conflict understand how morally insignificant the stupid fraternity pranks there were compared to the rape rooms and torture rooms operated by Saddam and later al Qaeda in Iraq, complete with children and parents being forced to watch one other’s violations and agony, as well as the innovative uses of bloody power drills, not to mention the filmed beheadings of screaming humanitarian aid workers by the marketplace mortarers and toy giveaway bombers. You dare mention Abu Ghraib out of context and as if it says anything larger about us and who we are and what we are doing? Without mentioning that it is antithetical to our ideals, whereas the torture rooms ARE our enemies’ ideals?
Fourth, those fighting us in Afghanistan are NOT fighting for liberty. They are fighting liberty. They issue death threats to those teaching women and girls how to read, to those who participate in free elections, to those who own a radio or TV set.
Fifth, the “small criminal organization” called al Qaeda had a STATE SPONSOR, the former regime in power in Afghanistan, which permitted al Q to operate a huge network of sprawling terrorist training camps all over the country, which churned out tens of thousands of graduates. As for the poppy trade, you and other “just asking questions, I’m really a patriot” useful idiots for the enemy would be moaning about how we’re taking away the only revenue source the locals have and how we’re clumsy and stupidly alienating them, etc. No matter what America does it’s wrong, no matter what the savages do, they’re noble and right, but oh you’re patriotic, right?
Sixth, whatever subliminal super subtle effort to white racial feeling and solidarity that the Republican Party engages in (largely if not completely mythical) is totally drowned out by the deafening roar of the explicit efforts of the Democratic Party to appeal to racial solidarity and loyalty among various non-whites. That deadly riot-inciting toad Al Sharpton is a respectable candidate, even a kingmaker whose ring is kissed by all major Democrat candidates. No equivalent exists with the GOP. The Democrats and their supporters routinely directly insult whites, by name, as a group, and gloat about declining white numbers and influence. Why should whites vote for such a party?
Seventh, what need would Washington or Jefferson have to be “closet” atheists if they were pushing a “real” American atheist agenda that “real” Americans broadly supported, since this was never a Christian country? Oh, they were hiding it to sneak it past the Christian rubes? Then this was a Christian country from the beginning, wasn’t it? As for their “atheism”, neither seemed shy about discussing their religious views in writing and at length. And as for never being a white country, the Founding Fathers’ first immigration law specifically stated that immigration and naturalization was limited to “free white persons”. Blacks were slaves, by definition non-citizens, and Indians were legally foreigners. Thus, a white country.
Eighth, the Indians launched major surprise attacks on white settlements in the earliest decades of the colonial experience, committing horrific massacres, wiping out a huge proportion of the whites who lived here. Carefully ignored today. They were by no means innocent and had routinely perpetrated such massacres on each other before our arrival.
Ninth, the Mexican War was begun by Mexico. It had invited settlers into Texas with promises of religious and political freedom in the Constitution of 1824, promises that it later broke. That was why the Texans revolted and won. Later, after Texas was annexed by the US, Mexican aggression caused war with the US, and after they were defeated, they signed a treaty ceding us the land. Most importantly, Mexico accepted our payment for the land in question (when we could have just rammed the cession down their throats) thus legally and morally permanently ceding it to us. Moreover, Mexico voluntarily sold us more of its land just a few years later in the Gadsden Purchase, with no threat of force involved. Mexico owned the land in question for only about 20 years; it has been US territory for over 160. Anti American leftists need to SHUT UP about it.
Tenth, illegal aliens are illegal, period, and have no right to be here. All deserve permanent expulsion. Their lack of respect for our borders, sovereignty, laws, and territorial integrity would be considered intolerable by anti-Americans such as you were it being committed against some other country by Americans.