DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... 1st Drone strike on US soil?

To take your reply seriously would lower a person's credibility.

The Patriot act was a huge opening of the flood gates. Even though you may wish to try to diffuse that, most everyone knows it's the single biggest legislation that attacks our rights in regards to miranda rights and privacy.

I'm actually agreeing with you in large part. Drones were being developed and I actually believe drones were being used when the Patriot Act was signed into law.

Much like the slippery slope you see when such things are passed, I saw this too. I do not however place any less blame on Obama for not reigning this in under his administration. Both are just as guilty IMO

After the last few insults and extremisms thrown out there, I don't think it's really worth debating you on this topic anymore. Please feel free to have the last word.

Joker - I'm aware of the FAA regulation, but I think it's going to get even too big for them to handle.

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The Patriot act was a huge opening of the flood gates. Even though you may wish to try to diffuse that, most everyone knows it's the single biggest legislation that attacks our rights in regards to miranda rights and privacy.

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I agree with you, but the stage had been set for something like that for a long time, it just the act of 9/11 to get people to do it... much like the shooting in CT has probably set the stage for gun control laws that have been discussed for a long time...

I remember my comments about the Patriot Act at the time.. They were similar to my comments on the healthcare bill at the time in that I felt people had not had a decent chance to read it and digest it and think about the future implications of it... same with healthcare. I did understand their feeling that they needed to pass something, I was worried it was too intrusive and I remember stating, hopefully they will reign it in over time...

Instead it has been expanded. Shame on me, with government I should have followed my own advice that government never voluntarily gives up power, it just keeps taking more.

And while it will always be thought of as Bush's baby, democrats voted for it overwhelmingly... so it's not like he was alone in getting it through...

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I'm actually agreeing with you in large part. Drones were being developed and I actually believe drones were being used when the Patriot Act was signed into law.

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Feb. 4, 2002 according to one source was the first time the CIA used a drone in a targeted killing.. not sure how long they were flying around before that... but since the Patriot Act was in 2001, it's a safe bet that the government had drones and knew of at least some of their capabilities when it was signed.

UAVs go back to WWII in what at the time they refered to as RPV (Remote Piloted Vehicles), mostly used for training. (I believe as targets)

UAV's were first used in combat status during Vietnam.

At what point do people start to see conspiracies as equally likely as coincidences?

jc

This should make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy.

Drone hijacked by hackers from Texas college with $1,000 spoofer

by Lisa Vaas on July 2, 2012 | 32 Comments

Filed Under: Featured, Vulnerability

[Drone image, courtesy of Shutterstock] Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin hacked and hijacked a drone in front of the dismayed Department of Homeland Security officials who had dared them $1,000 to do it.

According to exclusive coverage of the event from Fox News, the researchers flew the small surveillance drone over the Austin stadium last Monday.

The drone followed a series of GPS waypoints programmed into its flight computer in what initially looked like a routine flight.

At one point, the drone veered off course from its intended flight path.

It banked hard to the right, "streaking" toward the south, before it turned to hurtle at the ground in what looked like imminent drone suicide, according to Fox's description.

A safety pilot radioed the drone - which was owned by the university, according to Reuters - and forced it to pull up just a few feet before it would have crashed into the field.

The demonstration of the near-disaster, led by Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the UTA's Radionavigation Laboratory, points to a "gaping hole" in the US's plan to open US airspace to thousands of drones, Fox noted: namely, drones can be turned into weapons, given the right equipment.

The researchers managed to hack the drone with a spoofer they put together with about $1,000 worth of parts.

[Department of Homeland Security] The Department of Homeland Security traditionally has been concerned with GPS jammers - the method of interference that some believe Iran used to bring down a US spy drone in December.

But others, including an anonymous Iranian engineer quoted by the Christian Science Monitor, say that Iran actually used the same spoofing technique that the Texas researchers demonstrated.

Spoofing allows a hacker to take control of a GPS-guided drone and force it to do whatever the attacker commands.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, this is how the engineer described the Iranians' use of spoofing:

The 'spoofing' technique that the Iranians used - which took into account precise landing altitudes, as well as latitudinal and longitudinal data - made the drone 'land on its own where we wanted it to, without having to crack the remote-control signals and communications' from the US control center, says the engineer.

Spoofing involves mimicking the signals of the drone's global positioning device and eventually taking it over completely by sending stronger signals than the unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV's) legitimate commands.

Humphreys claims that the $1,000 spoofer he and his team rigged up to hack the university's drone last Monday is the most advanced one ever built.

He also says that the implications of a UAV's vulnerability to this type of spoofing are serious. Here's how he described the potential scenario to Fox News:

In 5 or 10 years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace... Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.

[UAV image, courtesy of Shutterstock] Meanwhile, the Pentagon and drone manufacturers in February pressured Congress to order the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to cook up rules that allow government and commercial use of drones in the US by 2015 - an idea that raises serious privacy concerns, with the prospect of police drones keeping watch on citizens already a reality.

Should we trust the US government to darken the skies above us with surveillance UAVs?

On privacy grounds it seems an obvious "No", and apparently not on "make sure those things aren't aimed at our heads" grounds either. From Fox News:

DHS is attempting to identify and mitigate GPS interference through its new 'Patriot Watch' and 'Patriot Shield' programs, but the effort is poorly funded, still in its infancy, and is mostly geared toward finding people using jammers, not spoofers.

The potential consequences of GPS spoofing are nothing short of chilling. Humphreys warns that a terrorist group could match his technology, and in crowded U.S. airspace, cause havoc.

"I'm worried about them crashing into other planes," he told Fox News. "I'm worried about them crashing into buildings. We could get collisions in the air and there could be loss of life, so we want to prevent this and get out in front of the problem."

We're being protected from these chilling scenarios by "poorly funded" programs that are "still in their infancy"?

I don't have much faith in Congress standing up to the Pentagon and drone manufacturers, so Mr. Humphreys and your team, thanks for getting in front of the problem.

Let's hope the DHS joins you, preferably before we've got hackable juggernauts flying over us.

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