Pentagon plays down security breach with US drones

Pentagon officials on Thursday sought to play down security concerns over US drones after acknowledging Iraqi militants used cheap software to intercept video feeds from the unmanned aircraft.
"This is an old issue that's been addressed," a defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. The problem has been "taken care of," he said, without offering more details.
Officials confirmed a Wall Street Journal report that Iranian-backed Shiite insurgents had used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available online for 25.95 dollars (18 euros) -- to capture live video footage from the unmanned aircraft.
Some sensitive video feeds from drones are routinely encrypted, another defense official, who asked not to be named, told AFP. But the extent of the encryption remained unclear.
Even as officials insisted the problem had been rectified, a military technology blog reported the vulnerability extended to video transmissions for an array of other US aircraft -- both manned and unmanned.
Video footage from US drones, fighter jets and bombers is transmitted to receivers that use unencrypted signals, Wired magazine's Danger Room blog reported, citing unnamed Air Force officials.
The unprotected signal used by the receivers, or Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receivers (ROVERS), means outsiders could hack into a video feed or jam it, an official told the blog.
Thousands of the ROVER receivers have been distributed to troops and the military was working to fix the security breach, it said.
Last month at a conference of the Army Aviation Association of America, a military official said the current ROVER device "receives only unencrypted" satellite bands, according to a presentation posted online.
The reports exposed a possible weak link in the US military's growing use of unmanned vehicles and live video feeds, which are crucial for combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as CIA manhunts against Al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan.
The Pentagon is deploying more armed and unarmed drones to Afghanistan to back up a surge of US forces there, and has placed a high priority on expanding and improving the fleet of unmanned aircraft.
James Clapper, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence, reviewed the Iraqi episode on orders from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded the hacking by Iraqi insurgents revealed a flaw in the security of the drone fleet, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Defense Department said in a statement that it "constantly evaluates and seeks to improve the performance and security of our various" drone systems.
"As we identify shortfalls, we correct them as part of a continuous process of seeking to improve capabilities and security. As a matter of policy, we don't comment on specific vulnerabilities or intelligence issues," it said.
There was no evidence that militants could control the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights, but the vulnerability would allow the unmanned craft to be monitored and tracked.
The problem was uncovered in July 2009, when the US military found files of intercepted drone video feeds on the laptop of a captured militant, intelligence and defense officials told the Journal.
They discovered "days and days and hours and hours of proof," an unnamed source told the Journal. "It is part of their kits now."
Some of the most detailed examples of drone intercepts have been uncovered in Iraq, but the same technique is known to have been employed in Afghanistan and could easily be used in other areas where US drones operate.
The US government has known about the flaw since the 1990s, but assumed its adversaries would not be able to take advantage of it, the Journal said.
Questions over intercepted feeds came a day after Lieutenant General David Deptula, Air Force deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, told reporters that some unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan soon would be equipped with a new hi-tech camera system called "Gorgon Stare" -- allowing a drone to beam back at least 10 separate video feeds at the same time.
Earlier Thursday, two separate missile strikes by US drones killed at least 14 militants in northwest Pakistan, security officials there said.