Skygrabber - Drone video for 26 bucks

[Navy1960]

Skygrabber would be a useful tool for you if you're out there trying to make sure the US Military can't catch up with you.

Skygrabber is a simple little piece of software, widely available for under $30 from a number of different sources. It was developed in Russia as an aid to grabbing videos and other digital data that others were downloading from the internet:

The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he said by email from Russia.

We might take that claim of "free legal content" with a pich of salt but certainly the company had no idea that it would be used by Islamic militants. For what they have been doing is using Skygrabber to download the data feeds from drones which are looking for them. If you know what the drones can see then of course you can either hide from them or at the very least check and see if they've seen you and that you then have to move:

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.
Skygrabber: a useful tool if you're trying to avoid the US Military

 

[☭proletarian☭]

They don't encrypt the feeds?

 

[Navy1960]

They do now, it's a case of one of those, getting caught with your pants down. However what is not being said here is that getting a video feed does not mean you know what the position of the drone is. However, the premise is that if someone can monitor the video feeds it will in theory give them enough time to evade any actions the drone may take.

 

[MaggieMae]

Skygrabber would be a useful tool for you if you're out there trying to make sure the US Military can't catch up with you.

Skygrabber is a simple little piece of software, widely available for under $30 from a number of different sources. It was developed in Russia as an aid to grabbing videos and other digital data that others were downloading from the internet:

The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he said by email from Russia.

We might take that claim of "free legal content" with a pich of salt but certainly the company had no idea that it would be used by Islamic militants. For what they have been doing is using Skygrabber to download the data feeds from drones which are looking for them. If you know what the drones can see then of course you can either hide from them or at the very least check and see if they've seen you and that you then have to move:

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.
Skygrabber: a useful tool if you're trying to avoid the US Military

That's an incredible story. If those "senior defense officials" have known this was going on since the height of the Iraq war, then why the hell haven't they done something about it before? Now, thanks to news reports, they'll be embarrassed into doing something. I think I'm gonna be sick.

 

[ba1614]

Sounds like it's fixed now, but I can't imagine they didn't encrypt it from day 1. I would have thought that standard for something this important.

 

[blu]

I am not sure if it is fixed. from this article: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones - WSJ.com

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.

"There's a balance between pragmatics and sophistication," said Mike Wynne, Air Force Secretary from 2005 to 2008.

The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service's proposed 2010 budget.

Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter

I cant believe the stuff wasn't encrypted. thats completely stupid

 

[Navy1960]

A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a shortcoming to the security of the drone network.

"There did appear to be a vulnerability," the defense official said. "There's been no harm done to troops or missions compromised as a result of it, but there's an issue that we can take care of and we're doing so."

Senior military and intelligence officials said the U.S. was working to encrypt all of its drone video feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but said it wasn't yet clear if the problem had been completely resolved.

Nat'l Security US Drones Twarted by $26 Russian Software - ChiefsPlanet

What I found to be very interesting about all this, is it serves to hi-light Russia's involvement in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. In my humble opinion this skygrabber software was developed at the request of the Iranians and supplied to Iraqi insurgents and is not supplied to those in Afghanistan. So any dealings with Russia should be done not with pre conceived notion that they are part of the world community but with some measure of distrust. If anyone here thinks that Iran has developed nuclear technology on their own without Russian help they are kidding themselves, and this serves to further show that giving anything away to Russia is a complete mistake.

 

[blu]

That's an incredible story. If those "senior defense officials" have known this was going on since the height of the Iraq war, then why the hell haven't they done something about it before? Now, thanks to news reports, they'll be embarrassed into doing something. I think I'm gonna be sick.

maybe it was arrogance or lack of technical understanding b/c the WSJ article said they know of it since the 90s but didnt think groups they went after would get the technology to intercept them

 

[☭proletarian☭]

A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a shortcoming to the security of the drone network.

I coulda told ya that...

 

[Navy1960]

blu, as I said in a previous post they got caught with their pants down, and of course someone is always going to develop counter-technology for anything you develop. If the DoD had become that short-sighted and given the Rumsfled years I would not be that surprised, to assume otherwise is dropping the ball in a big way.

 

[xotoxi]

Skygrabber would be a useful tool for you if you're out there trying to make sure the US Military can't catch up with you.

Skygrabber is a simple little piece of software, widely available for under $30 from a number of different sources. It was developed in Russia as an aid to grabbing videos and other digital data that others were downloading from the internet:

The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he said by email from Russia.

We might take that claim of "free legal content" with a pich of salt but certainly the company had no idea that it would be used by Islamic militants. For what they have been doing is using Skygrabber to download the data feeds from drones which are looking for them. If you know what the drones can see then of course you can either hide from them or at the very least check and see if they've seen you and that you then have to move:

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.
Skygrabber: a useful tool if you're trying to avoid the US Military

That's good to know.

Now maybe I can stop walking around with this umbrella with an arrow and words "Bad Guy Over There" written on top.

 

[MaggieMae]

I am not sure if it is fixed. from this article: Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones - WSJ.com

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.

"There's a balance between pragmatics and sophistication," said Mike Wynne, Air Force Secretary from 2005 to 2008.

The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service's proposed 2010 budget.

Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter

I cant believe the stuff wasn't encrypted. thats completely stupid

It's more than stupid. I just read the entire history of the drone on Wikipedia, and it's gone through numerous sophisticated upgrades, fully approved by not just the Pentagon, but the CIA. It's truly unbelievable, since everyone else knows that satellite communication can easily be intercepted, how those brainiacs didn't also know that and do something to protect the data.

 

[Navy1960]

Maggie, you would have to understand a little about DoD purchasing habits to know how something like this happens. This is the same DoD that spends 16.5 Billion dollars on the comanche helicopter for years and can you guess how many the Army has , try zero, as the program was cancelled by the DoD resulting in the production of zero helicopters for the Army. If you really want to know how things like this happen, google the following, New US Air Force Tanker. and read the history on it.