Texas Students Hijack a U.S. Government Drone in Midair

by snipe Posted 2012/07/01 01:20:06

Related Topics: Iran, Hijack, Air Force, Author, Hack, Student, Austin, U.S. Government, Video, Homeland Security, Texas, Captured, GPS, Drones, Hackers, Pretend

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We all knew it was just a matter of time, right?

Predator DroneUS Air Force

The U.S. government, understandably, doesn't want its drone technology to fall out of the sky and into other peoples' laps. But being able to hijack a drone and control it? That's even worse. And a team of researchers has done it for 1,000 bucks.

The University of Texas at Austin team successfully nabbed the drone on a dare from the Department of Homeland Security. They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone's GPS.

We've seen spoofing before; it was reportedly used to bring down the drone that crashed in Iran last year. As the researchers point out, we'll be seeing (or maybe not seeing) more and more drones in the skies as the technology becomes more widely used, so making this technique ineffective will be high on Homeland Security's priority list.

By Colin Lecher
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-06/researchers-...

+15

sglmom 2012/07/01 02:52:30

+11
Whoopsie!
Gee .. looks like DHS has a bit of 'egg' on its face ..
(or is that something else there .. )
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More polls by snipe

Technotrucker_exposingthetruth 2012/07/03 21:55:18

+1
Time to pull out the heavy artillery. I suspect some of these country folk that are crack shots could cost DHS a few million a year. Fly that bitch over my house without a warrant, and it will look like it went through a shredder.

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bettyboop 2012/07/03 19:12:16

+1
hahaha.............homeland security asked for it and got it

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Uranos7 2012/07/02 15:59:57

+1
I knew it was just a matter of time, although it was a bit easier than I expected. ;)

Air Force spokesperson Capt. Rose Richeson tells CBS news that the Obama administration has already distributed detailed guidelines instructing the military when and where to use military drones to gather intelligence or conduct surveillance for law enforcement purposes.

Capt. Richeson went on to explain that “a court order or warrant is not required in all circumstances.”

Additionally there are 13 different categories a person can fall under which allows the Military to conduct person specific surveillance operations. on a person without a warrant.

I live in a rural area and have seen the drones flying around looking for poachers and pot growers obviously without a warrant.

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jackolantyrn356 2012/07/01 15:41:33

+2
Good. Such Turds in the sky can be taken down

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debrarae 2012/07/01 14:43:07

+1
Just shows #DHS#

http://www.banklawyersblog.co...

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texasred 2012/07/01 14:03:06

+4
I loved this. It just showed the government how inept than can be... which is most of the time!

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ed 2012/07/01 10:41:27

+3
piss on homeland security

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Julian 2012/07/01 07:45:22

+2
Beware the law of unintended consequences.

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Pedro Doller ~POTL-PWCM~JLA 2012/07/01 07:36:59 (edited)

+5
Haking will be a problem if they use GPS. Maybe that's a good thing.

How to down a drone:
http://crab.wordpress.com/201...

Maybe you want your own drone, just to spy on your neighbors or to fly ahead and check the highway for speed traps.

http://www.nitroplanes.com/ua...
http://www.google.com/product...
http://www.robotshop.com/unma...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?...
http://www.idaerospace.com/ga...

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T A 2012/07/01 07:31:34

+3
Excellent! I hope it inspires many others.

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Matt Gray 2012/07/01 07:13:06

+5
$1K to commit a crime and recieve national attention? I think they should have known better. Of course bugs exist. Bugs exist in every software on this planet. It's the job of those producing the software to update continually. They shouldn't have hijacked it.

It shouldn't be flying above America in the first place but that's a different story.

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snipe to Matt Gray 2012/07/01 13:48:56

+2
Doesn't matter what they do, there will always be someone out there that will undo it.

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13_JunkyardDog 2012/07/01 06:56:57

+2
wow, so many people miss the point of this entirely....

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seadog6608PWCM 2012/07/01 06:55:24
shadow76 2012/07/01 06:50:18

+3
Why are they using these things in our own airspace?

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13_Junk... to shadow76 2012/07/01 07:15:24

+2
why? REALLY????? You really can't think of one reason? I'll give you a few...

RnD:
1) Testing new aircraft
2) Testing new parts on an existing airframe

Military:
3) Transfering from one airbase to another
4) Practicing take-off and landing
5) Practicing maneuvering
6) Practicing aerial refueling
7) Practicing using the sensors and camera

Civilian:
8) Border patrol
9) Search and rescue
10) Surveying farm land or cattle herds
11) Surveying weather
12) Surveying traffic for accidents, areas of congestion or for dangerous drivers

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shadow76 to 13_Junk... 2012/07/01 07:17:08

+4
Spying on innocent Americans going about their lives?

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13_Junk... to shadow76 2012/07/01 07:20:40

+2
conspiracy theorist much?

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shadow76 to 13_Junk... 2012/07/01 07:30:41

+4
Didn't mean that rave! Realist we have a Govt run by wanna be dictators!

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jackola... to shadow76 2012/07/01 15:47:16

+3
No they are real dictators OK, but the Kids have surprised them They thought the kids were all dope smoker idiots. Now they'll punish all the sch0ols in Texas by Adding another big dose of "DUMB_DOWN" and maybe some Alice B. Toklas Brownies for Lunch one day, but then that would be illegal in this day and age if you get Michelle's Dictates

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Janoy D... to shadow76 2012/07/01 08:06:26

+1
Then if your going about your life, then you have nothing to fear. plain and simple.

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shadow76 to Janoy D... 2012/07/01 09:12:03

+1
They should not be doing it. It is wrong!

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Hawkeye to Janoy D... 2012/07/01 11:40:39

+2
Hope YOU feel the same when you find out they're tapping you PHONE..

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Janoy D... to Hawkeye 2012/07/02 02:07:57

I work for the military, so therefore my 4th amendment rights are near nonexistant. So the only right we have (many of my friends that are military find this funny because it true) is the right to shut the F*** up. Personally, I dont the drones or the wire tapping because I have nothing to hide.

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Hawkeye to shadow76 2012/07/01 11:39:20

+3
It's ONLY called "Spying " when they fly it over FOREIGN Territories.. It's called Surveyance when they're looking at YOU...

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shadow76 to Hawkeye 2012/07/01 15:51:46

+1
Well he is a foreigner!

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snipe to shadow76 2012/07/01 14:05:01 (edited)

+3
Lol! You're talking to someone who voted "no" to the question: "should the Gov be allowed to censor song lyrics," but thinks it's just fine that they use Drones to monitor our activities if they want to. Typical of those who spend 99.9% of their time over on the fun thread.

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shadow76 to snipe 2012/07/01 15:53:45

+1
hahaha! good one, I agree with you.

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Elaine ... to 13_Junk... 2012/07/01 13:58:20

+2
Gotta TAX those cow farts... LOL

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jackola... to Elaine ... 2012/07/01 15:48:54

+1
No, the cow farts will be done by estimation covering of a spread of 500 cows.

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zapped 2012/07/01 04:17:49

+3
it's all on a radio wave freq of MHZ's / KHZ's ( usually but could be UHF or VHF ) and a code to get in ,,both easily done ..a good ham radio oper could do this as well ...

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13_Junk... to zapped 2012/07/01 07:16:24

+1
connecting is one thing, issuing orders is another animal entirely.

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Glfer65 2012/07/01 03:50:41

+1
With the technology getting better and the people getting smarter they have to do this so as to prevent other countries from doing this again! The best thing to do is hire the MIT whiz kids and make it bulletproof to steal.

They more likely will have to come up with the rolling firewall or set of codes that the computer randomly makes once they get the commands from the pilot on the ground. Smarter to have this then getting countries into our defense system.

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Marc Allen 2012/07/01 03:20:39

+3
GOOD JOB!..THEIR HIRED!.lol

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Kat ♪ 2012/07/01 03:02:01

+8
These drones shouldn't be flying over the U.S. anyways unless the government has declared war on the citizens.

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zapped to Kat ♪ 2012/07/01 04:20:52

+4
well something to think about ,,,after all the whitehouse has authorized the use of drones for surveilance on us citizens !

then a 50cal could take care of that problem ...!

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Thor Am... to zapped 2012/07/01 06:24:08

+3
In more ways than one.

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13_Junk... to zapped 2012/07/01 07:00:22

+1
You'll more than likely miss 99.99% of those shots and are more likely to accidentally hit your fellow Americans on the ground. You're better off learning to hack

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zapped to 13_Junk... 2012/07/01 18:29:42

+2
a expert army sniper could hit one easily !

they dont fly super sonic ...FPS on a 50 cal VS FPS on a drone ?

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Farnsworth to zapped 2012/07/01 18:36:01

+1
might be a bad idea over a populated area.

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