Christian Science Monitor: is this a reputable source known for good journalism?
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Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
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Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#52Christian Science Monitor: is this a reputable source known for good journalism?
I too have been skeptical of this publication. Others have told me that despite the name, it is quite good.
The title is more meant to be "The Monitor" but it is owned by the Christian Science church. That is why the domain is csmonitor.
Their FAQ page also says:
"Is the Monitor a religious publication?
No, it’s a real news organization owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., USA. Everything in the Monitor is international and US news and features, except for one religious article in the weekly magazine and Daily News Briefing – a version of which has appeared each day since 1908, at the request of the Monitor’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy. In an age of corporate conglomerates dominating the news media, the Monitor’s combination of church ownership, public-service mission, and commitment to covering the world (not to mention the fact that it was founded by a woman shortly after the turn of the 20th century, when US women didn’t yet have the vote!) gives the Monitor a uniquely independent voice in journalism."
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#53Just throwing this out there, maybe the drone was intended to be caught as part of another kind of intelligence gathering operation. It's easy to blame this on incompetence, but the other angle is that the drone being caught was made to look like an accident in order to collect intelligence (gps, audio, etc) from wherever the Iranians took it, and this data could be offloaded to someone that could gain access to the…
I've heard that suggested before, but it's probably in a warehouse on some military base being examined. It's unlikely we'd gain any valuable intelligence from the environment they bring it to. It's not like they're going to park it in their nuclear facility to do the dissection.
The location of their research facilities is itself valuable.
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#54So, they spoofed GPS and jammed the rest of the communications to make it land automatically. Given that there are test transmitters for GPS devices used when consumer devices are being created it's not a surprise that they managed to do this. Not very long ago there was a GPS jamming exercise in the UK done on a military range. I realize that as a Westerner I shouldn't be rooting for the Iranians but if they did spo…
Hmm, the GPS signal the military uses is supposed to be encrypted and un-spoofable. I wonder if Iran cracked it. If so, can the US reset the key easily? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals#Precision_code
Maybe there's a safety fallback to normal GPS when the encrypted GPS goes out. The alternative would be no GPS at all in which case they'd need to send an actual human in to shoot it down or capture it.
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#55Lets flip the tables here and imagine Iran is flying surveillance drones over mainland USA, gathering photos and who knows what else. Would it be unreasonable to think the USA would try with everything they've got to shoot them down and/or capture them? Who would be the bad guy in that scenario? I find it amusing nobody has thought to question what right the US have to fly a surveillance drone over Iran to spy on the…
I don't see anyone saying that what Iran did is wrong, do you? It seems that prevention is expected. The secret of international law is that it doesn't really exist. Or that the "law' in "international law" does not mean the same meaning as the "domestic law" within a country's borders. All you have are agreements between countries but with no true external body that can enforce penalties or punishments without the t…
You are correct in that this (and many other related articles) are not directly saying what Iran did is wrong... however, I feel the general tone and overall implication is that Iran have "taken" a drone that doesn't belong to them, and clearly are not about to give it back.
So as you say, "law" doesn't really apply, it's more of a moral decision as to whether a country should spy on another country. We can clearly see the outcome of that decision here.
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#56One American analyst ridiculed Iran’s capability, telling Defense News that the loss was “like dropping a Ferrari into an ox-cart technology culture.” An ox-cart technology culture that is allied with China and Russia. I hope this kind of hubris is counterbalanced by more realistic attitudes in the defense world.
Indeed. It seems to me that even if Iran fails to get much useful out of it, there'll be buyers queuing up for it ready to pay anything.
Payment would be in the form of alliances and protection from US aggression.
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#57So, they spoofed GPS and jammed the rest of the communications to make it land automatically. Given that there are test transmitters for GPS devices used when consumer devices are being created it's not a surprise that they managed to do this. Not very long ago there was a GPS jamming exercise in the UK done on a military range. I realize that as a Westerner I shouldn't be rooting for the Iranians but if they did spo…
Hmm, the GPS signal the military uses is supposed to be encrypted and un-spoofable. I wonder if Iran cracked it. If so, can the US reset the key easily? [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals#Precision_code
The P code is on a different frequency, so the Iranians could have just jammed the P code, and then presumably the drone would rely on the the unencrypted C/A code which they spoofed.
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#58(Prelude edit: A few people seem to be missing the point I'm making here. I know quite a lot about the predator, and a bit about the Global Hawk. I do not know much about the Sentinel. The jab about building a drone with parts on my kitchen table is a joke, meant to illustrate that this is either an absurd level of incompetence on the part of Lockheed Martin [not likely] or the article is incorrect, the latter being…
What becomes really really scary about this is the idea that they're relying solely on GPS to fly.
GPS is pretty damn precise, especially once you add local ionosphere corrections (via WAAS or similar) and get to use the military signal. It's certainly good enough for navigating an airplane, because it's more accurate than what was in use before GPS (VOR).
Edit: relevant diagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Accuracy_of_Navigation_Sys...
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#59This is what the US congress should be investigating instead of passing bills that have no chance of becoming law or reaffirming "in god we trust".
Re: Report: Iran Hacked, Hijacked U.S. Drone
#60This page 2 comment is making me not believe what I am reading. Data stream is not encrypted? Can anyone confirm? The US military has reportedly been aware of vulnerabilities with pirating unencrypted drone data streams since the Bosnia campaign in the mid-1990s. Top US officials said in 2009 that they were working to encrypt all drone data streams in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan – after finding militant laptops l…
I thought that the "unencrypted data streams" was video channel, not the control channel. Is that not true?
You are correct. As far as we know, the "unencrypted data" was just video, NOT control codes.