The Glade 4.0

Link seems to be bnroken, but I knew it would happen sooner or later. This is why I think going to an all-UAV air force is a pie in the sky idea. If insurgents can do it so can Russia or China.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I was hoping this was a misplaced StarCraft II update.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Fixed the link, sorry about that.

They did it with software from the internet that can be bought for $26.00. Fortunately, at least according to the military, they weren't able to take control or disrupt operation of the drones, but by hacking the video links, were able to see what area were under surveillance, etc.

Can't say I'm surprised. This was bound to happen eventually. It's why the "everything is connected to the internet" you see in movies is so silly; ther's a lot of things that there's no reason to connect.

The worst example I cn think of is that "Eagle Eye" movie, where the computer makes the electric lines come apart at a specific point and kill a guy. Come on, why would you build the physical ability into a power line to be remotely separated, and then connect that ability to the internet or even to something like SIPRNET?

Or where it remotely ejects an F-16 pilot.. that system is totally mechanical. If you made it so it could be remote activeated hat would just create a way for enemy forces to ahck your fighters and eject the pilots.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'm so unsurprised that I'm actually very surprised. This is so obvious that I just assumed a solution had been developed.

I'm sure it would have happened sooner if there were no measures in place at all. It's just proof that absolute security is a myth.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

From what I have read, there were no measures in place... it probably took so long because even the insurgents figured it was too stupid to not be covered. This wasn't hacking as in compromising the security system, it was simply intercepting the video feed broadcasts... more akin to using your neighbors unsecured wireless connection.

I doubt that very much, since it's sent over SIPRNET in the first place. Probably what's meant is the actual video feed itself has no additional measures on top of the security of SIPRNET.

I'm not going to say more on this.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

From the article..

Yes, I know what the article said.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Uh...this really doesn't have anything to do with whether the UAVs were hooked up to SIPRNET, NIPRNET, or even the public Internet. That's a perfectly reasonable thing to do. They have to get the telemetry from these things somehow, and obviously that's going to require some kind of wireless data link -- satellite in this case. With the appropriate encryption mechanisms in place, this doesn't pose any significant security risk (for now).

The real issue is that they were broadcasting this data over an unencrypted satellite uplink. Considering the amount of SIGINT and COMINT business the feds have had their hands in, they damn well ought to know how inexcusably stupid that is.

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Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

This. Especially the inexcusably stupid part.

I need Skygrabber, just to play with. But, their website is pretty slammed today ... !

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Be careful believing what you read about exactly how this went down.

More to the point, think about what you'd do if you were managing damage control in the aftermath of this disaster.. pragmatically.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I'd be asking a lot of questions about why the security encryption wasn't secured so that the signal could not be ungarbled, why we were once again underestimating the enemy, and asking how we can improve the system so this doesn't happen again.

Then I would be asking the programmers to develop how to give them false broadcast feeds to gawk at while the Predator was somewhere else.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

That's a good start. Now think more deviously. What assumption are you making here?

I know that normally here we go based on what information is available. I'm not saying we necessarily shouldn't here. I'm trying to point out something else.

How would you try to not just control the damage but gain an advantage from the situation?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Let it be known that they "hijacked" the info with easily available tech (whether that was the case or not) - that you can leverage your own knowledge of said tech in order to gain info about the "hijackers' when they try again?

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Start tracking the purchases of said 'low tech' equipment to get an idea about who wants to hack in to the system. Investigate buyers, discreetly, quietly, and put together a strike plan if you hit the jackpot.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Encryption is highly over rated. It's easily compromised with brute force (in several different ways). Even if you created enough complexity in the encryption system to deter trying to break it, you still have to worry about the phyisical security of the equipment...

One downed drone, or captured mobility trailer, etc...

This, but even more devious.



This too, but like I said, something more.

Let me give you a hint.. wouldn't you sort of dangle a carrot out there to lure people into trying again?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Make them kind of trackable, targetable, so they can be fired upon, then have their silent shadow blow up the firing site.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I suppose that could be done although their main defense against anything insurgents have is their small size. All you'd really do is fly lower, and if they could take a shot you'd inevitably lose some drones in the process of killing guys with MANPAD SAMs that really are pretty ubiquitous anyhow.

It's a possibility, but not what I was thinking of.

Wouldn't you maybe try to tempt people into trying the same thing, maybe by making it sound easier than it actually was so you can figure out where the smart, tech-savvy bad guys are?

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

I thought that was what I suggested, heheh.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko