A media report in the US has revealed that Iraqi insurgents have managed to hack into one the US government’s drone aircraft. Using off-the-shelf programmes such as SkyGrabber, Shia fighters have reportedly obtained footage from the unmanned plane.
Made possible due to the open communications link that the American drone planes have, insurgents may be able to glean planned target sites from the captured footage. The Associated Press new agency is reporting that this may have also occurred on another occasion by Afghanistan insurgents after quoting an official from the US Department of Defense. The unnamed official explained that the issue first came to light when a captured fighter was found to have Predator drone footage on a laptop. However, he added that though insurgents had been able to see this footage, there was no evidence to say that any aircraft electrical signals had been jammed.
Remotely controlled by individuals who could be thousands of miles away, Predator drones can fly for hours at a time, capturing footage and attacking targets with loaded missiles. Whilst the unnamed official said that US defence was now working on encrypting video feeds, a spokesman from the Pentagon said “The Department of Defense constantly evaluates and seeks to improve the performance and security of our various systems and platforms. As we identify shortfalls, we correct them as part of a continuous process of seeking to improve capabilities and security. As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on specific vulnerabilities or intelligence issues.”
