Want to hack US drones? You need only $1000.

[no1_vern]

Well, that and some technical training.

Texas college hacks government drone — RT

There are a lot of cool things you can do with $1,000, but scientists at an Austin, Texas college have come across one that is often overlooked: for less than a grand, how’d you like to hijack a US government drone?

A group of researchers led by Professor Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas at Austin Radionavigation Laboratory recently succeeded in raising the eyebrows of the US government. With just around $1,000 in parts, Humphreys’ team took control of an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the US Department of Homeland Security.

After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into their drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that.

Humphrey tells Fox News that for a few hundreds dollar his team was able to “spoof” the GPS system on board the DHS drone, a technique that involves mimicking the actual signals sent to the global positioning device and then eventually tricking the target into following a new set of commands. And, for just $1,000, Humphreys says the spoofer his team assembled was the most advanced one ever built.

“Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane,” Humphreys tells Fox. The real danger here, however, is that the government is currently considering plans that will allow local law enforcement agencies and other organizations from coast-to-coast to control drones of their own in America’s airspace.

Wait a sec, the DHS challenged a college lab to hijack a US drone?

[GroundZero3]

I think its great for government agencies to make these challenges, now they know how it can be done and hopefully fix the issue.

I wonder if this is something similar that happened in Iran?

Sounds pretty similar

Iran–U.S. RQ-170 incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Epidemic]

I think it is fine to challenge people. But the results of said challenge should be kept silent except for those who did the spoof and those who have to modify to overcome the spoof.

[tony_j15]

Yes. We must hide information. Secrecy is paramount.

[Epidemic]

Tony,

Secrecy is not good? Should we sell the Iranians the plans or just tell them what to do? I would think that a level of secrecy would be in order??? Depending on the complexity of the device I would think secrecy should be inversely proportional.

[tony_j15]

Obviously the Iranians already know what to do.

Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to know just how secure drones will be that will be flying inside our borders.
Wouldn't you?

[Epidemic]

they will be less secure if you let the cat out of the bag. if it becomes a problem then perhaps you can tell people.

instead we have all but informed people how to do it and an industrious person can now work towards the ends no one desires.

I know it is a fine line but I would much rather that the science geeks had kept this quiet. i am not even saying as a matter of law. Just for the good of society. If the government refused to take it seriously then go public.

[bigBonehead]

Loose Lips Sink Ships

(circa 1940's)

[Taxmancometh]

I believe there are like 3 to 4 modes of GPS transmission, one of which is for the military and is a bit harder to spoof. I wonder if these drones are using trhe military variant GPS signal?

[tony_j15]

The "security" argument has been null since US v. The Progressive and New York Times v. US. The revelation of classified or secret information so far has not had long-term negative impacts. The government must abide by these sort of decisions, which is why information about drone glitches is public.

It is disturbing to me they way people assume every little thing should be hushed up and under lock and key. Stop living in a post 9/11 fear zone!

[GroundZero3]

*cough cough*

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones - WSJ.com

Encryption of drone feeds won't finish until 2014, Air Force says

[Epidemic]

The "security" argument has been null since US v. The Progressive and New York Times v. US. The revelation of classified or secret information so far has not had long-term negative impacts. The government must abide by these sort of decisions, which is why information about drone glitches is public.

It is disturbing to me they way people assume every little thing should be hushed up and under lock and key. Stop living in a post 9/11 fear zone!

Again I am not talking about this being illegal. Just private decsion to not try and disclose potentially dangerous intel that would cause harm to the US.

I am thinking in this case it should be up to your discretion, but I would hope your discretion would lead you to a better choice. Will releasing this information help or hurt America should be part of the decision.

[Epidemic]

*cough cough*

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones - WSJ.com

Encryption of drone feeds won't finish until 2014, Air Force says

i do have to say that is pretty interesting that they don't encrypt their video feeds.

what retards!!!

I would think you could institute basic encryption with off the shelf pentagon stuff in less than a year. I never in a million years would have thought that anything was unencrypted involved with the military.

[GroundZero3]

I think they were running into bandwidth issues with the predator feeds so they decided against it. Welcome to your United States Air Force

[MTAtech]

Hire these people to develop a system that they can't attack.

[bigBonehead]

That just makes too much sense... Although hackers are employed by the US Gov I believe...

[GroundZero3]

Of course they are!

[tony_j15]

*cough* stuxnet