Introduction to Cyber-Warfare - Proiect SEMPER FIDELIS

190 10. INFORMATION THEFT ON THE TACTICAL BATTLEFIELDThe broadcast model offered by SATCOM communications allows multiple users to “tunein” to view the feeds. For example, during the Bosnia campaign, Predator feeds were viewedby the control station (the pilot), the Trojan Spirit communication terminal supporting theAmerican forward-deployed headquarters conducting operations, and a communication stationin Britain where the signal was then sent to Washington, DC and to the U.S. military’snetworks. 11 The Predator video feeds that were transmitted using the commercial K u -bandSATCOM were not encrypted, so that anyone capable of receiving the signal could potentiallyview it. Though the identification of the precise frequencies was not public knowledge, discoverywas still possible. The practice of relying on little known, but discoverable pieces ofinformation as a means of security is known as “security by obscurity.” In such practice, thereis no real access control—no software making decisions on whether to permit or deny access.Instead, an administrator relies on somehow hiding the access point to the system. However,once this access point is discovered, the system is essentially open to all users who can discoverthe access point. This is exactly what happened in the case of the Predator-systemthrough the use of a piece of Russian hobbyist software known as “SkyGrabber.” This typeof eavesdropping is illustrated in Figure 10.4.SkyGrabber is a piece of software designed to grant a computer admission to a wirelessnetwork using SATCOM switched to promiscuous mode—thus intercepting or “sniffing”TV tunerLegimate militaryusersEavesdropperFIGURE 10.4 The Predator UAV collection intelligence information (in the above figure, its sensors detect an enemytank). When using beyond-line-of-sight communication, the UAV broadcasts its data to a satellite. The satellite,in turn, broadcasts the data to the users. While normal military users can obtain the signal and decode it to view whatthe UAV sees, the information can potentially be viewed by a third-part eavesdropper. The use of the Skygrabbersoftware, coupled with a television tuner card allowed a British hobbyist as well as KH insurgents in Iraq to interceptthe feed of the Predator from commercial satellites in this manner.