Taliban hack into Biden’s zombie ninjas
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the US military has found evidence that, with support from Iran, the Taliban has been able to download video from drone aircraft;
The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially serious vulnerability in Washington’s growing network of unmanned drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be either politically untenable or too risky.
The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military technologies.
When the Soviets became completely reliant on airpower to defeat the mujahadeen in Afghanistan, that reliance was defeated by US Redeye missiles. Heavy reliance on drones has made our entire strategy vulnerable to a $26 software program.
Category: Military issues, Terror War
I was wondering if/when this was going to happen.
I comment on a couple of blogs run by former Navy guys, which should be obvious, being a former airdale. We’ve been discussing UAV’s for some time now, and for the past two years or so, I’ve been harping about the video link being the weak link of the entire system. There is one other link that is almost as dangerous, but that, too, should be obvious.
Regardless, the vehicle requires an accurate, real-time video link in order to operate. It’s the tech-link between the platform and the pilot. If you want to render the platform useless, then all you have to do is disable or compromise the video link.
You can disable the link or you can substitute your own, or you can piggy-back on it, as the enemy seems interested in doing, therefor being able to view the video stream and act upon the intel BEFORE we can.
Our enemy knows ALL the damned levels that data has to go through before the trigger can be pulled, and that permission often takes time to get. In that time, the enemy can warn a potential target and move it before it can be hit.
We need a better encryption system NOW.
When I was at Camp Phoenix, the Afghan workers we allowed on the installation swiped classified thumb drives… Gee, I bet SOME of ’em are in Tehran now… Perhaps we should have hired folks from places like Nepal who would have no cultural/linguistics links with the bronze age barbarians who are hell bent on killing us in Asscrackistan??
When pop was in ‘Nam in 65-66, his battalion commander, Hank “The Gunfighter” Emmerson allowed no indigenous Vietnamese in his compounds. Like Hackworth said, CRS, Can’t Remember Shit syndrome is epidemic in the bureaucracy known as the U.S.Army…
Yeah, it’s that damn Biden’s fault. Why didn’t he encrypt the signal when he designed those things? Some VP he is…..
Joe,
The signal IS encrypted. Problem is that those using the system ought to be constantly upgrading and changing out the encryption, which, obviously, they aren’t doing properly.
I can’t say, however, that I’m surprised. After all, this is just another example of how things work when Obama and Biden are leading by example.
Everyone seems to be up the military’s butt about not encrypting the feed for the drones but if you have ever been in the military you nderstand the difficulty of everyone being on the same encryption. On the flip side, 5 years ago everyone was up the military’s butt for not getting the feeds out to troops on the ground fast enough. You cant have it both ways. In order for the encryption to work effectively the military would have to change the crypto often, thus causing serious crypto issues with all forces on the ground. Changing the crypto in the military for the SINGARS was a royal pain in the butt and by the time everyone was on the same page it was time to change it! I dont think this is as big an issue as everyone wants to make it. I think it is better to get the feed to the troops faster and more effectively than worry about some cave dweller watching it on his screen trying to warn his buddies. Oh yeah, the insurgents have obviously used to great effectiveness because we havent been able to target them recently. Thats right we are still slaying them in Pakistan with great effectiveness! All this is more reason to bash the military by people who have no understanding of the military!
All The Way!