the picture in TFA looks like they photoshopped a Predator in over the background.

It just looks wrong.

Oh I so want to be the first person to blame Obama for this.

make me some tea: Gig103: make me some tea: It's the same thing as having a police scanner.

Yeah, but it still sucks. I think the decision came from bandwidth issues. Satellites aren't the fastest, especially for uplink, and to do streaming video + streaming encryption was probably too expensive.

And having the enemy outsmart you because they know where you're pointing your cameras at isn't more expensive? FAIL

This tech was developed in the '90s and hasn't been updated. Data encryption is bonehead technology. I don't buy that it's too expensive. We're already dropping $4.5 million a pop on these things.

For reals. It's not like we ever, ever, ever reject a military budget. Eleventy-hojillion dollars? Passed and signed, baby. My wireless router should not have better security on it than a Predator Drone.

aden_nak: My wireless router should not have better security on it than a Predator Drone.

Sad point, but that's it in a nutshell.

How do they know that they're Iranian-backed insurgents? That's my question. Is it just because they want them to be Iranian-backed to justify all the Iran hatred?

Come on. At least link to the entire WSJ article that Fox News is ripping off to begin with!

Bad subby!

submitter: Predator drone: $4.5 million. Off the shelf software: $26. Knowing the Iranians just hacked your high-tech surveillance with a program you can get at Best Buy: priceless

I'm calling shenanigans.

This implies that Best Buy is a retail store and not a place for lazy, greasy nerds to earn money to buy video games.

no new fix old?

military intelligence?? wait what??

make me some tea: GAT_00: That isn't so much hacking as piggybacking the signal. At least they aren't able to send commands to the Predators.

It's the same thing as having a police scanner.


First you get the scanners. Then you get the power. Then you get the girl.

whistleridge: ju66l3r: Come on. At least link to the entire WSJ article that Fox News is ripping off to begin with!

Bad subby!

I was going to, but sadly, that article had just been taken by a previous redlit submitter (see the submission just before this one in the queue), so I didn't have much choice.

Sometimes, you just gotta work with the tools you have, not the tools you want.

Yeah, sorry about that. I can't make a good headline to save my life.

whistleridge: ju66l3r: Come on. At least link to the entire WSJ article that Fox News is ripping off to begin with!

Bad subby!

I was going to, but sadly, that article had just been taken by a previous redlit submitter (see the submission just before this one in the queue), so I didn't have much choice.

Sometimes, you just gotta work with the tools you have, not the tools you want.

Or you could use a ?, and put something witty after the url.

it was just a matter of time
but...
you'd think they'd have developed proprietary software
and you know, encrypt it just a little maybe

They'll figure out how to block the video feed...with PRON!

Subby confusing the terms hack with eavesdropping on unencrypted wireless video feeds: Priceless-ier

good enough for government work?

The Icelander: submitter: Predator drone: $4.5 million. Off the shelf software: $26. Knowing the Iranians just hacked your high-tech surveillance with a program you can get at Best Buy: priceless

I'm calling shenanigans.

This implies that Best Buy is a retail store and not a place for lazy, greasy nerds to earn money to buy video games.

Does anyone walk past the in store pickup line these days? Do they still have aisles of CDs?

ChiliBoots:

/AF is having trouble with their water supply



Ensign George Gay sees what you did there.

You have to be within line-of-sight of the drone to pick up the video feed. You can only watch.

I'm no super ninja reflex guy, but I don't think I could react fast enough to avoid a god damn missile.

Also, this issue has already been fixed when it was first discovered almost 9 months ago. My guess is they randomize the encryption each launch.

/emberrassing, but a non issue

And when my dad drives by the local UPS store, his backup camera monitor turns on and shows their security camera.

Encrypt your video feed!

Gig103: Satellites aren't the fastest, especially for uplink, and to do streaming video + streaming encryption was probably too expensive.

Directv and Dish Network have no trouble streaming encrypted video signals to my tv.

Flab: Gig103: Satellites aren't the fastest, especially for uplink, and to do streaming video + streaming encryption was probably too expensive.

Come-on... it wouldn't be that difficult, even with technology from 10 years ago. We're not talking 1080p quality here! At the very least, they could have ROT-13'd the signal or something.

Not to mention that sending encrypted versus unencrypted video shouldn't actually add a whole hell of a lot of data to the stream, depending on the encryption protocol anyway, not enough for it to be a huge issue I wouldn't think. All of the actual computational effort is being done by the broadcaster and receiver anyway to encrypt/decrypt.

Here's hoping they don't figure out how to override the UAVs' command lines anytime soon. Some of those things can really ruin your day.

make me some tea: Goddamn IT security 101 right there.

ALWAYS ENCRYPT YOUR BROADCAST DATA

No wonder Osama bin Laden got away every time. He was watching us watch him.

Idiots. We're being run into the ground by idiots.

*facepalm*

You know, I've always wanted my own RC predator drone. Who knew it could be mine for $29.99.

I'm starting to understand why we only attack stone age countries.

Gwendolyn: From the gizmodo article:
If twelve-year-olds can encrypt their torrent downloads, I think it's a reasonably fair expectation for the US military to be able to encrypt mission-critical data transmissions, the insecurity of which could kill people.

Apparently they have never dealt with government employees or defense contractors.

Government projects almost always go to low-bid. There are reasons often times why these people are low bids (cutting corners). You get what you pay for.

Market says X product costs Y amount. All bidders have comparable costs and products. All bidders must cover their costs and turn a profit. Bid says Y amount must be half the price, but meet the same standards. Seeing that this is not possible, bidders must get creative. Value engineering leads to cutting corners.

I wonder if somehow the MPAA can get involved in fixing this unauthorized content distribution problem?

Real hackers don't pay 26 dollars for software.

GAT_00: That isn't so much hacking as piggybacking the signal. At least they aren't able to send commands to the Predators.

YET -- Version 2 will be out in March 2010

The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military technologies.

I think it's clear that the only solution is to increase military spending by half a trillion dollars.

I'm using Predator drones to seed copies of Terminator Salvation torrents so I'm getting a real kick out of these replies...

Given what my sister told me about her stint in the Marines I am not surprised. Among other things, their entire network was being run on pirated software before they were forced to hire contractors.

So it's true! If you go to DeVry or ITT Tech, you CAN get your dream job!

SCUBA_Archer: Gig103: Satellites aren't the fastest, especially for uplink, and to do streaming video + streaming encryption was probably too expensive.

Directv and Dish Network have no trouble streaming encrypted video signals to my tv.

Whose "encryption" can be circumvented with free software from the internet. Hell are they even really encrypted or does the receiver just need to establish the proper handshake protocols to receive the signal? I'm not sure so thats more of a musing question but the two scenarios are pretty different in terms of bandwidth requirements and such.