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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Wrong assumption and big blunder

This would be funny if not deadly serious. How can a company producing military drones can be so stupid:
The problem was uncovered in July 2009, when the US military found files of intercepted drone video feeds on the laptop of a captured militant, intelligence and defense officials told the Journal.

They discovered "days and days and hours and hours of proof," an unnamed source said.

"It is part of their kits now."

Some of the most detailed examples of drone intercepts have been uncovered in Iraq, but the same technique is known to have been employed in Afghanistan and could easily be used in other areas where US drones operate.

The US government has known about the flaw since the 1990s, but assumed its adversaries would not be able to take advantage of it, the Journal said.

Adding encryption to a decade-old system requires upgrading several components of the system linking drones to ground control.

One of the developers of SkyGrabber, which is made by Russian company SkySoftware, told the Journal he had no idea the program could be used to intercept drone feeds
Even your mobile phone has more security and encryption from the handset to the base station than something meant to perform the task stealthily. It is just arrogant and stupid to assume your adversaries is dumb. I am wondering who is dumber now.

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