[Noisebridge-discuss] Iran shows intact drone, boasts of cyberattack

[Jake]

the fact that it's not crashed or self-destructed is proof that they took 
over controlling it and landed it where they wanted to.

stuxnet doesn't seem nearly as impressive now, does it?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-57339407-503543/iran-shows-intact-drone-boasts-of-cyberattack/

Iran shows intact drone, boasts of cyberattack

This photo released on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, by the Iranian 
Revolutionary Guards, claims to show US RQ-170 Sentinel drone which Tehran 
says its forces downed earlier this week, as the chief of the aerospace 
division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, right, 
listens to an unidentified colonel, in an undisclosed location, Iran. 
(Credit: AP Photo/Sepahnews)

Iranian state-run TV showed images of what appears to be a RQ-170 Sentinel 
drone, which the Islamic Republic claimed to have brought down by 
cyberattack in its airspace near the Afghanistan border over the weekend.
If it is the U.S. drone nicknamed "Beast of Kandahar," many of the worst 
fears of intelligence analysts could come true.

"Military experts are well aware how precious the technological 
information of this drone is," The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps 
Aerospace Forces Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told state-run news 
agency FARS.

The drone appears to be almost perfectly intact, giving Iran a great 
opportunity to explore its many cutting-edge and sensitive 
intelligence-gathering technologies. U.S. officials have said that 
particular drone's self-destruct function probably did not go off, because 
at the time of its downing, there was no contact with the drone.

The state-run news agency FARS writes:

"Among the United States' main concerns is that Iran could use an intact 
aircraft to examine the vulnerabilities in stealth technology and take 
countermeasures with its air defense systems. Another is that China or 
other US adversaries could help Iran extract data from the drone that 
would reveal its flight history, surveillance targets and other 
capabilities. The drone was programmed to destroy such data in the event 
of a malfunction, but it failed to do so. The blow has been so heavy that 
the US officials do not still want to accept that Iran brought down the 
plane by a cyberattack."
U.S. officials have said little about what exactly brought down the drone, 
initially only indicating that CIA officials - who had been running the 
drone at the time - had lost contact with it at some point during its 
flight.

Many in the U.S. said earlier it is unlikely that Iran would be able to 
recover any surveillance data from the aircraft, but that was before 
images of it being apparently largely intact surfaced online.

Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares and a member of the Council on 
Foreign Relations, told CBS News that the drone is "one of the most 
sophisticated surveillance assets the U.S. possesses."

Cirincione said access to its technology adding that if Iran - or Russia 
or China - were able to glean information from its systems, "It could 
seriously set back U.S. national security interests."

Gen. Hajizadeh told FARS that the Iranian military had been well aware of 
drone flights in their territory for some time, and claimed to have shot 
down several before. For its part, U.S. officials have admitted that 
drones have been spying on Iran for years, but there has been little to no 
information about drones being downed there previously.

As for this specific drone flight, Gen. Hajizadeh claimed Iran was aware 
of it before it happened.

"Recently, our collected intelligence and precise electronic monitoring 
revealed that this aircraft intended to infiltrate our country's airspace 
for spying missions," Gen. Hajizadeh said. "After it entered the Eastern 
parts of the country, this aircraft fell into the trap of our armed forces 
and was downed in Iran with minimum damage."

dont forget to check out the comments:

If it was a techn malfunction its computer systems would have instructed 
it to fly straight home. The fact it is in iran means that it was taken 
over electronically.
There were news reports awhile back that were pretty much ignored by the 
public that communications between the drones and the satellites were 
unencrypted. Seems Iran was paying attention.

The next step:
Countries like Iran will be able to take control of US drones and use them 
to attack other countries, making it look like america was to blame. And, 
america WILL be to blame.

and

by CODE-NAME-NINA12 December 8, 2011 12:31 PM EST
COOL THE sneaky MIGHTY GREAT SATAN GOT CAUGHT WITH ITS PANTS DOWN...
Lololololololllllllllllllll.

by EmpireGeorge___-- December 8, 2011 1:01 PM EST
It's just a drone and not our "pants"......This should have never been 
flown over Iranian airspace, we could have achieved the same from 
satellites, instead.