The only surprise is that the US army is surprised – given that it has known since the 1990s that the 'downlink' (from the satellite) of the drone video was unencrypted. The most worrying thing is you can just see all this data going by.' He has been at it since the 1990s – and in 1997 could see French TV reporters beaming back closed circuit coverage of Princess Diana's death to the UK over unsecured feeds. In February this year Adam Laurie, an 'ethical hacker' who has spent a lot of time looking at satellite feed hacking, told the BlackHat conference that 'anyone with a dish can see data being broadcast' and that 'things you would expect to be secure turn out not to be secure.
The weakness has been known for a very long time. And because any satellite downlink signal spreads a little, the area where it can be picked up is potentially huge. Because that signal was unencrypted, anyone who tuned their satellite dish to the correct frequency and location in the sky could pick up the signal, and decode it. The signal would then be beamed by that satellite or a linked one down to the controllers – who might be in Afghanistan or Iraq. The US drones would send their video up to a US military satellite (the 'uplink') that cannot be intercepted.
