Introduction to Cyber-Warfare - Proiect SEMPER FIDELIS

186 10. INFORMATION THEFT ON THE TACTICAL BATTLEFIELDINTRODUCTIONIn Chapter 7, we discussed acts of cyber espionage that suggest Chinese involvement.These operations focused on either massive data exfiltration for the purposes of stealingintellectual property and industrial information and/or long-term monitoring of anadversary’s information systems—most likely as a means of intelligence collection. In thischapter, we look at cyber-espionage operations that focus on exploitation of a differentsort—the exploitation of data relating from ongoing tactical military operations. The exploitationincidents described in this chapter deal with the theft of information either transmittedor received from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system. 1 Hence, as opposed to what wasdiscussed in Chapter 9, the incidents presented here are of much more immediate consequence.Further, unlike the cyber-espionage operations of Chapter 9, where the data stolenwere normally in the “storage” state, the information pilfered in the operations of this chapterwas normally in the “transmission” state. Here, the operators are more concerned about datatraveling to or from a UAV system than static data on a hard drive. In this chapter, we brieflydescribe the Predator—flagship UAV of the U.S. military—and a 2009 incident where insurgentoperating Iraq was found to intercept the video feeds of that system.We note that although this chapter focuses on cyber operations against American UAVs,the cyber-espionage methods and techniques applied in such missions could most likely beused against UAVs from other nations too. We also note that American UAV programs areperhaps the most mature in the world. Hence, as other countries catch up in this military technology,they will most likely experience similar cyber-espionage operations against theirsystems as well.THE PREDATOR UAVThe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an organization within theDepartment of Defense tasked with maintaining technological superiority over America’s adversaries.Unlike organizations that sponsor scientific research for the military services—suchas Army Research Laboratories, the Office of Naval Research, and the Air Force ResearchLabs, DARPA does not conduct research in support of near-term needs of the military—but rather explore high-risk, high-payoff ideas that would allow the United States to obtain“strategic surprise” over its adversaries. Formed in 1958 in response to the Soviet launch ofthe Sputnik satellite, DARPA has been the organization responsible for military innovationssuch as stealth aircraft and the M16 rifle. 2 An even more notable technological contribution ofthis organization was known as ARPANET—which today is better known as the Internet.In the late 1970s, a firm known as Leading Systems proposed a long-endurance unmannedaerial vehicles (UAV) design that DARPA funded in the early 1980s—resulting in an aerialplatform known as the Gnat 750. Due to a shift in priorities pertaining to UAV-technologymandated by the U.S. Congress, the focus in the research community moved to systemsdesigned for short-range missions. As a result, Leading Systems went out of business andthe long-range UAV-technology they had developed was acquired by General Atomics. Aftera successful beyond line-of-sight test, the Gnat 750 was hailed as a “Revolution in Military