A while back, I blogged on how researchers have developed tools to intercept streaming video from video conferencing systems and IP surveillance cameras. Today I feel so prescient with the Wall Street Journal's article on how Iraqi insurgents are using similar software to intercept the video feed of Predator Drones.

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The article has the catchy subtitle "$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected." It discusses how the insurgents are using the software to intercept the Drone's unencrypted video stream, "potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations."

According to the article, the military has been aware that this type of attack was posssible for some time: "The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s, current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said."

Let's hope that the Pentagon has learned what happens when you ass-u-me things…