Military contractors
What's wrong with our military when we spend $12 million on each UAV, but don't require the contractors to use encryption??? The officials claim that the only benefit the insurgents have gained is possibly knowing what areas are under surveillance... one question I had - assuming that the video feed is being sent for the entire flight (which it would have to be, since these are flown remotely), can't the insurgents also get aerial photography of our bases as the UAVs fly home and land?
The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.
Last December, U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered copies of Predator drone feeds on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter. "There was evidence this was not a one-time deal," this person said. The U.S. accuses Iran of providing weapons, money and training to Shiite fighters in Iraq, a charge that Tehran has long denied.
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