Iran tricked U.S. spy drone into landing in country, report says
Electronic warfare experts used GPS spoofing techniques to snag drone, Christian Science Monitor says
By Jaikumar Vijayan December 16, 2011
Computerworld - The U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone that was recently captured and displayed by Iranian authorities may have been tricked into landing in that country after being electronically ambushed.
An unconfirmed report in the Christian Science Monitor Thursday quotes an unnamed Iranian engineer as saying that electronic warfare experts in the country were able to cut off the drone's communications links and reconfigure its GPS coordinates to trick it into landing in Iran.
The engineer was described as someone working for an Iranian team that is engaged in trying to glean information from the drone.
The techniques used to attack the drone were developed by reverse-engineering older U.S. drones that were either captured or shot down in recent years, the engineer is quoted as saying in the Monitor report. The attack also took advantage of weaknesses in the drone's navigation system to spoof its landing coordinates and bring it down on Iranian territory.
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