Predator Drones Hacked By Insurgents In Iraq and Afghanistan

If you have ever wondered why The U.S. despite the fact that it has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to prosecute both the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan still has not really got that much to show for it in terms of progress in either "theater" this next story might help shed some light on it. The insurgents in both countries have figured out a way to hack into the Predator Drones computer systems in order to evade their attacks and also monitor some U.S. military operations. The Predator is basically an unmanned slow flying attack plane. It is computer driven and it searches for and bombs selected locations using G.P.S. satellite systems to fix in on its targets. They usually cost about 4.5 million a copy and the newest generation will cost over 10 million each. The insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan have figured out that they can tap into the predators on board computer systems by using an inexpensive software program called Skygrabber which anyone can buy off the shelf for about $25. It takes advantage of an unprotected communications link that sends out video feeds that were not encrypted. It can keep the insurgents one step ahead of the "surprise attacks" and help them evade them or minimize their effects. The predator is considered the future of Air warfare but it has had problems and this latest one is not even the least of it. The biggest problem it has as a system is that it keeps crashing. It has been reported that over 1/3 of the predator drones that have been deployed have been lost due to system malfunctions which have led to crashes.