Insurgents in Iraq have used cheap software in order to hack into the video feeds sent from multi-million dollar spy drones used by the US, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
The paper reports the Shiite insurgents have used programs such as SkyGrabber, which costs just under $30, in order to capture the footage sent from the hardware.
“This is an old issue that’s been addressed,” said a defense official speaking to the Journal, adding the problem had been “taken care of”.
The official said that while the report was accurate and that feeds had been stolen, the weaknesses in the software have now been addressed.
It was also reported the software flaw had been known by the Government for some time, but it assumed insurgents would not be able to take advantage of it with limited technology.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
