When it comes to defense, intelligence and security, we spend roughly has much as the entire rest of the world combined. That kind of money buys you some really bitchin' hardware, like the Predator drone.
Remotely flown and stealthy, you put a couple of Hellfire missles on this baby and you are ready to kick some ass!
The only thing that could make it better was if they'd encrypted the freakin' video link to the operator!
That's one hell of a security hole.
Obtaining the video feeds can provide insurgents with critical information about what the military may be targeting, including buildings, roads and other facilities.
Using $25 off-the-shelf software Shiite insurgents are able to intercept the video links between the Predators and their ground operators:
Shiite fighters in Iraq used off-the-shelf software programs such as SkyGrabber — available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet — to regularly capture drone video feeds, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The hacking was possible because the remotely flown planes have an unprotected communications link.
This isn't a design flaw or an implementation bug. The Predators were built to transmit in the clear. There was no thought given to protecting the link. The DOD just assumed that no one would ever be able to intercept the signals.
This is the same bunch that build giant Faraday cages around their data centers to protect from electronic evesdroppers and pay a premium for special monitors and laptops that don't radiate a video signal. Yet these geniuses thought it was impossible for someone to aim an antenna at a radio source in the sky.