predator drones monitored...

[trax1]

Yeah I guess your right, who cares if they can see the live streams off our drones, no possible way that could compromise anything at all.  I mean hell why don't we just start a USALiveDroneFeed.com website, at least this way we can maybe charge them a subscription fee.

[Sundowner]

This ranks right up there with not putting locks on airline cockpit doors until you have a problem.

Now,(after it comes to light that the V-feeds were being intercepted by johnny jihad) we'll encrypt them!

To propose that the feeds aren't of tactical interest to the enemy may be understating the significance of this com sec breech.

From the link:
"Obtaining such video feeds could provide insurgents with information about sites the military might be planning to target."  

Layman's illustration as how this info may be helpful to the enemy:

Enemy:
"Let's avoid and or move assets out of this area to protect them."
"Let's change that get-together with the upper commanders to another spot." (Missed opportunity to Hellfire some big dogs. Said big-dogs live to plan another day and another few thousand lives are lost down the road.)

If the feeds are of no significant use to the enemy then why work to get them encrypted now?

From the link:
"The unnamed official said the US defense department had addressed the issue by working to encrypt all video feeds provided by drones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."

If the reason to encrypt them now is to close a security hole then why weren't they encrypted before?  


Add this to the mix:they've known about this since the 1990s.

"U.S. lawmakers called on the White House to quickly fill vacant cybersecurity posts in the wake of revelations that Iraqi insurgents have learned to intercept video feeds from unmanned military drones.

Lawmakers also expressed frustration that no action was taken until this year, even though the vulnerability of the video feeds had been known since the 1990s. The story was first reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

"It outrages me that this vulnerability was known since the 1990s, and they never fixed the problem," said Rep. James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat and a member of the intelligence and armed services committees. "It makes them look like a bunch of Keystone Kops. Who else had access to these video feeds?"

Rep. Langevin said he would press for answers when Congress returns in the New Year: "They're going to get both barrels when I return to D.C.""

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/18/drone-breach-stirs-calls-cyber-post/

Don't forget what overlooking the obvious allowed in 2001...see cockpit locks above.

Regards,
Sun

[Fishu]

That's a lovely way to make counter-recon easy and cheap for the opfor. Surely there must been US forces in the drone's view, especially when returning to the launch site.

Not so surprisingly a texan was the first to defend the unencrypted feed. Just like I guessed before opening the thread.

[WilldCrd]

That's not true. Not even close to true. If I put up a camera over a say... a dam, a piece of critical infrastructure. You're no longer going to attack it, at all? That's great. Using the logic from this thread, all we need is Biden's drone cloud, and there won't be any attacks. Obviously they can't do it if we can see the entire region at once.

That's not even touching on the technology they actually use to detect areas of interest, like ground mapping radar that can cover an area, come back 5 minutes later, and detect footprints in the ground... which is in use already on drones and can't be viewed as a nifty over the air stream like the current unencrypted video links.

They secured the command & control. If video was that important, they would've secured that too. No real differences.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here- If the feeds were of no real tactical importance to our enemies then...doesn't it stand to reason that it's not important to us? If they aren't important then WHY do we even have them?

However using that logic if said V-feeds ARE important to us ( and they are BTW) then they MUST be of importance to our enemies for pretty much all the reasons stated already.
ANYTHING that is of importance to your enemies will be important to you, no matter how trivial YOU may think it to be, Not to mention the fact that if they could get our V-feeds and freqs then what else can they get to? And yes I'm well aware that the C & C is encrypted but, consider this: If they encryption was designed or even just decided on by the same "rocket scientists" that came up with the brilliant idea of NOT encrypting the drones V-feeds then .........how good do ya think it really is? Was it top shelf top sekrit encryption or was it the basic encryption that you can D/L off the net for free or for a " trial period"   

[Dadsguns]

(without naming any cost cutting presidents), due to the cost involved with encryption and the associated support system this probably was something that was considered "fat" in that project so something had to be cut to keep it alive.  

+

If the reason to encrypt them now is to close a security hole then why weren't they encrypted before? 


Add this to the mix:they've known about this since the 1990s.

"U.S. lawmakers called on the White House to quickly fill vacant cybersecurity posts in the wake of revelations that Iraqi insurgents have learned to intercept video feeds from unmanned military drones.

Lawmakers also expressed frustration that no action was taken until this year, even though the vulnerability of the video feeds had been known since the 1990s. The story was first reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

"It outrages me that this vulnerability was known since the 1990s, and they never fixed the problem," said Rep. James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat and a member of the intelligence and armed services committees. "It makes them look like a bunch of Keystone Kops. Who else had access to these video feeds?"

Rep. Langevin said he would press for answers when Congress returns in the New Year: "They're going to get both barrels when I return to D.C.""

=

MONEY

Now take a guess at what president that would be.........