[Noisebridge-discuss] Iran hacked US drone by spoofing GPS, jamming control signals

[Jake]

read the whole story:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1215/Exclusive-Iran-hijacked-US-drone-says-Iranian-engineer-Video

Using knowledge gleaned from previous downed American drones and a 
technique proudly claimed by Iranian commanders in September, the Iranian 
specialists then reconfigured the drone's GPS coordinates to make it land 
in Iran at what the drone thought was its actual home base in Afghanistan.

"The GPS navigation is the weakest point," the Iranian engineer told the 
Monitor, giving the most detailed description yet published of Iran's 
"electronic ambush" of the highly classified US drone. "By putting noise 
[jamming] on the communications, you force the bird into autopilot. This 
is where the bird loses its brain."

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.

...

Prior to the disappearance of the stealth drone earlier this month, Irans 
electronic warfare capabilities were largely unknown  and often dismissed.

"We all feel drunk [with happiness] now," says the Iranian engineer. "Have 
you ever had a new laptop? Imagine that excitement multiplied many-fold." 
When the Revolutionary Guard first recovered the drone, they were aware it 
might be rigged to self-destruct, but they "were so excited they could not 
stay away."