So, we have these drones that we can send in via remote control to hostile parts of the world and not risk the lives of military personnel. Sounds like a great idea, right?
Except for the fact that the video downlink is unencrypted and can be tapped.
Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.
Data encryption needs two thing: hardware to do the encryption and a key management system for distributing keys. The hardware would take time to implement and test. Shipping keys around the world so that all of the right people can listen in on video is a pain. The military already does it for all of their other communications, it seems like this should have been done.
And we knew about this when?
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.
Yeah, like the stupid militants don’t talk to each other? Mitigate that arrogance, chump.