# Our drones were hacked...
**URL:** https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic
**Created:** [December 18, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367 "2009-12-18T08:22:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AFhockey31](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/AFhockey31)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/1 "2009-12-18T08:22:27Z")
> **[Drones hacked](https://www.upi.com/Daily-Briefing/2009/12/18/Drones-hacked/UPI-35261261141720/)**
>
> Raw data feeds from U.S. military drones used in hostile regions of Iraq, and possibly those deployed in Afghanistan, have been hacked by militants.
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### Author:  [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/2 "2009-12-18T08:22:46Z")
Not hacked…
Unencrypted video stream
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### Author:  [@glitch](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/glitch)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:25am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/3 "2009-12-18T08:25:41Z")
Epic Military Fail:
> …information from the drones, considered a highly effective weapon in the fight against insurgents, had been stolen through the use of a software download available on the Internet for $26.
> …the software allowed video feeds from drones to be monitored.
> …the potential for such a hack existed since the 1990s…
> :picard:
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### Author:  [@LZ1](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/LZ1)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:31am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/4 "2009-12-18T08:31:24Z")
Its real time info anyways…Encryption really isn’t a huge deal.
By the time they intercept a video feeds what to say a missile isn’t already on its way?
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### Author:  [@Blue\_Eyed\_Devil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Blue_Eyed_Devil)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:42am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/5 "2009-12-18T08:42:42Z")
True but, it is 2009 and the US Military can’t prevent this? Seems silly.
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### Author:  [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:50am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/6 "2009-12-18T08:50:21Z")
Yeah, I don’t really see the problem here. They knew it was an vulnerability but at the same time knew the enemy they were fighting didn’t have the technical capability to do much with the vulnerability. The real concern was going up against a more advanced enemy who could capture that feed, edit it in real time, and broadcast their version back to us. So we’re looking at a video where everything is fine and all of a sudden a whole tank brigade rolls up. Even then it’s not like drone video would be the only surveillance we had. Satellites, human pilots, recon teams etc.
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### Author:  [@boardjnky4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boardjnky4)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:54am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/7 "2009-12-18T08:54:29Z")
> [@Blue Eyed Devil](#):
>
> True but, it is 2009 and the US Military can’t prevent this? Seems silly.
sometimes it’s just not cost effective to mitigate a vulnerability that has a low impact
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### Author:  [@AFhockey31](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/AFhockey31)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 10:33am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/8 "2009-12-18T10:33:54Z")
To me, the real risk of someone hacking and possibly remote piloting one of these… Not to tinfoil hat it, but why not? If you can remote access a computer, what is to say you couldnt a fully loaded Predator ?
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### Author:  [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 10:38am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/9 "2009-12-18T10:38:05Z")
> [@AFhockey31](#):
>
> To me, the real risk of someone hacking and possibly remote piloting one of these… Not to tinfoil hat it, but why not? If you can remote access a computer, what is to say you couldnt a fully loaded Predator ?
Because you’re not remote accessing the computer. You’re just watching the video the predator is streaming back unencrypted, like a little flying TV station.
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### Author:  [@AFhockey31](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/AFhockey31)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 10:47am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/10 "2009-12-18T10:47:22Z")
I could just picture that… “hey… that looks like my cave”… “go outside and lo”…
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### Author:  [@Fry](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Fry)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 11:33am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/11 "2009-12-18T11:33:23Z")
> [@AFhockey31](#):
>
> I could just picture that… “hey… that looks like my cave”… “go outside and lo”…
:lol:
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### Author:  [@glitch](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/glitch)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/12 "2009-12-18T16:03:30Z")
> U.S. officials in 2004 talked of the possibility of Chinese and Russian personnel stealing drone feeds but an increased level of security of the information didn’t start until this year.
> One would think, with their constant display of concern and scare tactics regarding homeland security, the Bush administration would not have dropped the ball on this once it was brought to their attention. They are after all, the orchestrators of the war, and during such a vulnerable time should not of ignored this. Now finally during the Obama administration, it get addressed?
I wonder what BED and JayS have to say about this.
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### Author:  [@JayS](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JayS)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/13 "2009-12-18T18:23:30Z")
Are we at war with the Russians and Chinese?
It’s funny, if we would have spent millions re-working the camera encryption the same people making this out to be a big deal would be crying about how the money should have gone to healthcare, or schools, or anything else because the enemy we were fighting couldn’t do anything with the unencrypted feed anyway.
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### Author:  [@boardjnky4](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boardjnky4)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/14 "2009-12-18T20:45:37Z")
> [@JayS](#):
>
> Are we at war with the Russians and Chinese?
>
> It’s funny, if we would have spent millions re-working the camera encryption the same people making this out to be a big deal would be crying about how the money should have gone to healthcare, or schools, or anything else because the enemy we were fighting couldn’t do anything with the unencrypted feed anyway.
This.
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### Author:  [@Bucker](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bucker)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/our-drones-were-hacked/77367/15 "2009-12-18T21:10:03Z")
We are talking about this now (I am in Iraq again) and laughing at how much shit the AP spreads… I cant really go into it all, but anything they gained from it was simply a live feed of a UAV flying around. That doesnt exactly provide tons of info to anyone, but it shouldnt be happening. It is fixed now, by the way.