GPS Hijacking Catches Feds, Drone Makers Off Guard

The University of Texas Radionavigation Laboratory drone, an Adaptive Flight Hornet Mini. Photo: Courtesy Todd Humphreys

On June 19, when University of Texas researchers successfully hijacked a drone by “spoofing” it — giving it bad GPS coordinates – they showed the Department of Homeland Security how civilian drones could fall into the wrong hands, exposing a potentially serious security flaw. It was exactly what Todd Humphreys, the lead researcher, anticipated in a TEDx talk in February: “You can scarcely imagine the kind of havoc you could cause if you knew what you were doing with a GPS spoofer.”

On Thursday, a month after the experiment, the investigations panel of the House Homeland Security Committee held a hearing on how civilian drones could affect the security of the American airspace. “These findings are alarming and have revealed a gaping hole in the security of using unmanned aerial systems domestically,” said Rep. Michael McCall, the panel’s chairman. “Now is the time to ensure these vulnerabilities are mitigated to protect our aviation system as the use of unmanned aerial systems continues to grow.”

Problem is, the FAA and the Department of Homeland security have yet to come up with specific requirements or a certified system to protect drones from GPS attacks. And what’s worse, neither of them takes responsibility for it. “The Department of Homeland Security mission is to protect the homeland. Unfortunately, DHS seems either disinterested or unprepared to step up to the plate,” said McCall, noting that representatives from the DHS declined to testify at the hearing. The FAA declined to comment on GPS security after the spoofing test.

Some of the drone manufacturers have their own systems to counter spoofing attacks, but others either think this is not their job, are not worried at all, or were completely taken by surprise.

“We’ve always been aware of [GPS threats like] jamming and lost satellites,” said Dennis D’Annunzio, Chief Technical Officer of drone maker Rotomotion, which produces drones used by local police like the North Little Rock Police Department in Arkansas. “But spoofing and taking control was something that we weren’t anticipating.”

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Syria’s Ballistic Missile Arsenal Looms As Assad Regime Buckles

If in its final hours Syria’s crumbling government unleashes a chemical barrage — and some analysts certainly think that’s possible — the regime will probably rely on an arsenal of gas- or nerve agent-tipped ballistic missiles purchased from Iran and North Korea.

But precisely how many and what mix of missiles President Bashar Al Assad controls, and therefore how deadly a chemical strike might be, both remain unclear. Equally unclear is how far the world should go to defend against such a strike.

Chances are, Syria possesses at least three types of ballistic missile that can be fitted with chemical warheads, according to Dr. Jeffrey Lewis from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California. These include Scuds and SS-21s acquired from North Korea and, less clearly, Fateh 110s transferred from Iran.

The Fateh 110s and SS-21s, both around 20 feet long, can reach just 50 and 120 miles, respectively. The Scuds, at 35 feet long, have a longer range: up to 400 miles. All the missiles are mobile — that is, they’re carried and launched by wheeled or tracked vehicles. The Scud’s so-called Transporter Erector Launcher is a heavy-duty offroad truck the size of a tractor trailer.

They’re all also unguided, with abysmal accuracy — 200 feet at best, in the Scud’s case. That means it can takes a lot of missiles to hit one target. According to various sources, Syria’s stockpile could include between 100 and 300 Scuds, maybe 200 SS-21s and probably no more than 50 Fatehs.

The Scuds and SS-21s have been widely reported and even glimpsed in recent satellite imagery and in the video above, shot in June by the Free Syrian Army. These two missile types have guest-starred in scores of conflicts since the Cold War. Most recently, Iraq lobbed Scuds at coalition troops in 1991 and 2003. Russia fired SS-21s at Georgian forces in 2009.

But the Fatehs are “something no one talks about,” Lewis, who also blogs at Arms Control Wonk, tells Danger Room. “That boggles my mind.” The Fatehs are just part of a growing portfolio of Iranian-designed missiles and rockets meant mostly for domestic use in Iran’s escalating standoff with most of the rest of the world and, to a lesser extent, for export.

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Pentagon Cash, Guns, Drones Are Pouring Back Into Yemen

A Marine drill instructor at Parris Island talks with a Yemeni military delegation observing U.S. Marine training. Photo: DVIDS/U.S. Marine Corps



It took the departure of a dictator, but the U.S. military is once again hooking up Yemen’s military with special ops hardware, ostensibly to fight al-Qaida’s local branch.

Documents obtained by the Washington Post and Bloomberg News show the Pentagon has ended its hiatus on training Yemen’s security forces. A “few dozen” American trainers have returned to Yemen, and they come bearing gifts: “two small troop-transport aircraft, 100 night-vision devices, five small ‘raiding’ boats for commandos as well as more small arms and ammunition.” And that’s not all. Small Raven surveillance drones, .50 caliber sniper rifles, laser targeting devices, M4 rifles and Glocks — all that is heading to Yemen.

The military aid totals $112 million, Bloomberg reports. That’s almost as much, in one lump sum, as the $115 million in military hardware the U.S. had given to Yemen by 2010, which took years to accumulate.

And it’s a return to form. The Pentagon has long given gear to its Yemeni counterparts so they could fight al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. But when Ali Abdullah Saleh, the longtime “president” of Yemen, began violently suppressing his own people as the Arab Spring spread to Sana’a, the United States felt compelled to dial back its support.

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Super-Silent Owl Drone Will Spy on You Without You Ever Noticing

The Great Horned Owl. Photo: ahisgett/Flickr

For spy tools, drones are pretty easy to spot. And hear, because they’re as loud as a gut-busting rock concert. But now the intelligence community’s research division, Iarpa, plans to start designing a silent drone inspired by quiet, creeping, flying owls.

Iarpa has reportedly awarded a $4.8 million contract to Connecticut firm D-Star Engineering to develop the ultra-quiet drone, Aviation Week reports. It’s the next step in developing a workable drone as part of the agency’s Great Horned Owl Program, which the agency hopes will let the military collect intelligence “without anyone knowing you are there,” (.pdf) according to an agency briefing.

Sound, after all, is the number one signature “that gives away the location of low-altitude UAVs and gives away their presence.” Which sort of defeats the point of having a secret surveillance eye in the sky. In some cases, you might want people to know you’re watching. At other times, you want to sneak up quietly.

But it’s hard to do without sacrificing payload. The added weight of sensors, and the ability to operate for longer periods, comes with trading out stealthiness. Drones powered by batteries: They’re quiet, but can’t stay in the air for long. Then there’s the added noise caused by airflow generated from propellers, and noise from gasoline or diesel engines (not counting batteries), with their moving pistons, turbofan and gears.

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Bibi Blames Iran for Terror Attack While U.S. Navy Waits Offshore

Protesters in Washington D.C. mock Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity, October 2010. Photo: Flickr/pthread1981

For at least a year, the U.S. has tried to keep Israel from attacking Iran, usually by arguing that sanctions on Tehran are working and that American can hit harder if it comes to a fight. It’s a delicate balance, especially since President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu trust each other only slightly more than they trust Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Now Iran might have upset the balance — even though Iran has an entire arsenal of U.S. guns floating just off its shores.

On Wednesday, a terrorist attack killed at least seven Israeli civilians vacationing in Bulgaria. Netanyahu immediately blamed Iran, and promised a “strong response against Iranian terror.”

Maybe Iran pulled the trigger. Maybe it didn’t. Netanyahu’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, was far less categorical. He said the attack was saying “initiated probably by Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or another group under the terror auspices of either Iran or other radical Islamic groups.” Regardless, he promised to “settle the account” with whoever was responsible for the strike.

If Iran actually was behind the attack, it did so in spite of having a massive amount of U.S. naval power aimed at it. The U.S. has quietly but persistently built up a massive naval presence around Iran that outclasses most of the world’s navies. It’s about to launch a huge exercise with over 20 nations that will demonstrate how to defeat an anticipated Iranian tactic. And this doesn’t even get into anything the U.S. does with Israel.

Even before word of the Bulgaria attack reached the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave Iran his best come-at-me-bro. Should Iran decide to close the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil shipping, he said, “We’ve invested in capabilities to ensure that the Iranian attempt to close down shipping in the Gulf is something that we are going to be able to defeat.”

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