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Title: Texas Students Hack U.S. Gov. Drone in Midair, Hijack It
Source:
Liberty News
URL Source: http://www.libertynews.com/2012/06/ ... ent-drone-in-midair-hijack-it/
Published: Jul 1, 2012
Author: Duane Lester
Post Date: 2012-07-01 13:53:11 by SJN
Keywords: None
Views: 1536
Comments: 3
They did it on a dare: The University of Texas at Austin team successfully nabbed the drone on a dare from the Department of Homeland Security. They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone’s GPS. As PopSci pointed out, Iran claimed to do the same thing last year, downing one of our drones. Wired Magazine wrote at the time it would be difficult to do, but it was possible: It’s possible to spoof unencrypted civilian GPS systems. But military GPS receivers, such as the one likely installed on the missing drone, use the encrypted P(Y)-code to communicate with satellites. The notion that Iran could have cracked through the encryption “sounds like a made-for-TV movie” says John Pike, a satellite expert and president of Globalsecurity.org. ”If they could overcome the sorts of of crypto systems that would protect this drone, they would not waste their time on surveillance drones. They would be breaking into banks.” But Iran might not have had to break the encryption on the P(Y) code in order to bring down a drone. According to Richard Langley, a GPS expert at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, it’s theoretically possible to take control of a drone by jamming the P(Y) code and forcing a GPS receiver to use the unencrypted, more easily spoofable C/A code to to get its directions from navigational satellites. “GPS satellites transmit on two legacy radio frequencies,” Langley explains. The unencrypted C/A code used by most civilian GPS unit “is transmitted only on the L1 frequency. The encrypted P code for so-called authorized military users is transmitted on both the L1 and L2 frequency.” Translated: If the Iranians could selectively jam the encrypted military code on the L1 and L2 frequencies — and that’s a big “if” — the drone’s GPS receiver might reach out to use the less-secure C/A code in a last ditch attempt to get directions. Without the extra protection of encryption, it would be relatively simple for Iran to spoof the receiver using the C/A code and fool the drone into thinking it was back home in Afghanistan. It’s bad enough these drones are being used over US airspace, but if they can’t even maintain control over them, they need to be grounded until they can.
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#1. To: SJN, *Jack-Booted Thugs* (#0)
They'll never be 100% secure from hackers. What encryption man can invent, another person can crack. It's even possible that the whole fleet of 30,000 drones can be turned against their masters.
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
Which is why the day paper money is deemed obsolete or illegal, hacked bank accounts will be epidemic. Not they it already can't be done, in that day the goob ITSELF will be THE biggest hacker. It's even possible that the whole fleet of 30,000 drones can be turned against their masters. Gee, that'd be a shame.
I think I saw several versions of that movie - Terminator and iRobot come to mind.
if they can’t even maintain control over them, they need to be grounded until they can.
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#2. To: hondo68 (#1)
They'll never be 100% secure from hackers. What encryption man can invent, another person can crack.
#3. To: hondo68 (#1)
It's even possible that the whole fleet of 30,000 drones can be turned against their masters.
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