Slashdot Mirror
Live via Satellite: NATO Aerial Surveillance Video
Factomatic writes "The BBC is reporting 'NATO surveillance flights in the Balkans are beaming their pictures over an insecure satellite link - and anyone can tune in and watch their operations live.' All you need is a satellite dish. John Locker tapped into the NATO aerial surveillance feed over the Balkans from England and has been e-mailing, faxing and calling NATO since November to get them to fix the problem. NATO denies it is a problem at all. I wonder if this would work in Afghanistan, too?" No, the article notes that Afghanistan is taking up all the secure communications bandwidth, and operations in the Balkans are getting kicked over to unencrypted channels. We ran an older story about the military's growing bandwidth crunch.
how long until somebody starts a webstream of this stuff? that'll beat webcams any day of the week.
It won't be on for long. It's ratings are horrible.
... because they're bogus feeds designed to throw someone off?
If you paid taxes during the cold war, you ended up supporting terrorism. What's your point?
Why yes I am paranoid! Thanks for asking!
My question to NATO is: Why are any of the feeds not secure to begin with? Shouldn't all they have implemented all secure transmissions from the get-go?
At last, some real competition to Rupert Murdoch's crappy satellite-based PayTV service!
Now if they can just get a good looking weather-babe the military might be on a winner here!
Surely they could buy a $1000 PC at each end and do: /dev/video_capture | mpeg_encode | unexportable_munition_software <secret-key> | /dev/satellite_modem
cat
and: /dev/satellite_modem | unexportable_munition_software <secret-key> | mpeg_decode | /dev/video_out
cat
Encryption is a munition, remember?
--Patrick
that because the Balkans are relatively "stable" now, that NATO just doesn't care if someone's watching? Milosevic is on trial in the Netherlands, there aren't mass riots against right-wing government candidtates (eg. LePen in France), and while their economy isn't anything near that of mainstream Europe, they're not starving in lines or causing problems, either (Even Quaddafi learned to keep quiet back in '86). Granted, this whole Afghanistan thing has got to be chewing up a lot of satellite space, but I really doubt it's eating *all* of it. Especially when you think about how many satellites are up there (Take the ones we know about, then double or triple to taste to count for the ones we don't)
I suspect that one of these choices is incorrect. Correct.
"Ah, here's an interesting little number... This is a live feed from a 'bunker buster' bomb. If there's a Mr. S.H. of Baghdad listening, call now to pledge $50 million or this little beauty will turn up on the front steps of your presidential palace..."
dan
Of course, this could all be avoided if he knew "how not to be seen..."
Let me clarify the lateral movement. It didn't seem like intended movement by a camera operator but unintended jitter.
The BBC is broadcasting the report on BBC News24
Live news stream hereThe report is being shown approx every hour
I think someone is going to be in trouble
The BBC news 24 report says its from nato remote spyplanes not satellites , hence why its shaky
The article makes it clear in the first sentence: Nato surveillance flights in the Balkans are beaming their pictures over an insecure satellite link - and anyone can tune in and watch their operations live.
You: Senator, why did my tax money support terrorism?
Senator: I have no knowledge of that fact.
You: Is it not true that currently TV shows are running commercials claiming that drugs support terrorism?
Senator: That would be true.
You: Well, says that my taxes, taxes which you helped passed went to support Afgan freedom fighters who later became terrorist to us.
Senator: Umm.
You: Therefore if this is true, should I not stop paying taxes since they went to support terrorist?
Senator: umm... umm.. umm. Your un American!
Reserved Word.
"Gee, Bob, ever since we started streaming those NATO satellite images over the web, our traffic has increased over 700%!"
..uh... think it means we'd better buy up m..m..mmore bandwidth... and pray the website doesn't go down."
"Hmm, looks like most of the traffic is coming from... Afghanistan, Serbia, Somalia, and Pakistan. In fact, that's where *all* of the traffic is coming from. What do you think it means, Phil?"
*Phil suddenly turns very pale and starts shaking and sweating*
"I
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
a government poll taken after the campaign against drugs using the "your supporting terrorism if you buy drugs" showed that the beginning stages of drug use had gone up 30%, not to mention our government shelled out over 2 billion dollars on the adds , paying for a professional director, and then airing them nonstop for several months. Maybe its me but i think its about time we legalized something
Righteousness postpones the inevitable
http://burningaureole.caveism.net
I worked in satellite communications in the army for 8 years. This story is hard to believe. Everything I worked on in the Army was encrypted up to 3 different times before it was transmitted to the satellite. Even GI's phone calls to their wifes were encrypted. There was an bulk encryption stage after the voice to digital encoding/multiplexing. This stream was fed into a data multiplexer and multiplexed with incoming data circuits. The output of that multiplexer was encyrpted again. The other incoming data circuits were probably already encrypted when they got to us. This is all before anything is modulated so it's not like they can't encrypt the data because they are using civilian satellites.
It's either counter-intelligence stuff or just real stupid.
Maybe this is the C-SPAN for the military. 24/7 surveillance footage of Eruope!
But, even the "simple" case may not be as simple as you think. It depends on how hard-wired their comms centres are, and how inventive the tech support people are. We can only speculate ...
And don't forget the "organizational" issues. I can imagine conversations like this.
SigInt guy: I need to run crypto XYZ over this unencrypted link. ...sigh... How do I solve my problem then?
...click...
Crypto guy: We cannot allow that.
SigInt guy: Why not??
Crypto guy: You don't have "need to know".
SigInt guy:
Crypto guy:
So where's the NATO Wish List?
I wanna see the good stuff.
An acquaintence in NASA once told me all of the satellites he's worked on for NASA (3 of them at the time) were controlled via unencrypted communications. They felt secure with this "security through obscurity" because it's a little harder to actually transmit the commands up to the satellite than it is to simply put up a BUD and start listening to all the data streams out there.
Hey, the government punishes people when they do stuff against the government. It should punish itself for doing stuff against the people
I think you're more than a little confused. It's not possible to punish the government.
If you try and inflict a fiscal penalty -- the money doesn't come from "the government" it comes from YOU -- the taxpayer!
Remember, bureaucrats have an incredible ability to accept bouquets whenever they're passing by -- but pass on brickbats to whoever is too slow to avoid them.
My hotel in Bangalore has the "worldwide" CNN and BBCNews, but they both loop after about an hour. I've seen this story about three times now with live footage. The worst part is that the footage also contains the aircraft's location. It's just silly that the live footage isn't encrypted at all. I mean, how hard could it be?
Of course, if it started to look like fighting was imminent, and the short term knowledge of what NATO saw or missed during yesterday's flight becomes dangerous information, then I would expect then I would expect NATO to secure the video feed, or perhaps even at any point when a few more fighting words than usual were emerging from Serbia.
Satellites broadcast to anyone on their path, so anyone with a small budget and some spare time can toy around with them -but crypto is the hard part.
.wav for processing.
A beginner's shopping list:
- A PC-controlled ICOM PCR-1000 SSB receiver ($300)
- A turnstile or better, double-helix antenna ($150)
- Satellite tracking software to know when to listen (eg NovaWin from Northern Lights Software, $60)
- Frequency lists, grab them on the web.
Plug the receiver's audio out into your soundcard's audio in, and voila ! save transmissions as
http://www.gravitywell.org/ is a good example.
Have fun!
Denis the menace
The Goelette Project
The video or though not visible on the streamcast but visible on my TV (BBC) are overlayed with a fine transparent Airscan text logo which a quick google turned turned up a "Airborne Surveillance Security" company based in Murrell Road, Rockledge, FLorida
presumably its their equipment/responsibility/fault as they seem to be a 3rd party contractor for the US Army/Security, below is taken from their About page
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
AirScan was created in 1989 to provide airborne surveillance security for US Air Force launch facilities. During seven years of surveillance missions, AirScan supported every mission on time. AirScan has in-depth knowledge of the space launch program and the vital service airborne surveillance provides in supporting this program. Sensor aircraft equipped with infrared, TV, LIDAR, and multispectral and hyperspectral sensors operated by experienced crews using innovative tactics combine to form a responsive, dedicated airborne surveillance operation. The result is proven capability based on operational expertise, thorough planning, and carefully chosen mission objectives.
Over the years, AirScan has greatly expanded its capabilities to perform a wide range of airborne surveillance missions. We are currently conducting surveillance and remote sensing missions in Africa, Europe, and throughout the US in support of diverse governmental and private projects. We also remain under contract to NASA and the US Air Force in support of the space and missile programs. AirScan is under contract to the National Response Corporation to respond to any major oil spill in US inland or coastal waters. We also conduct maritime surveillance, ground security, wildlife surveys, research and development, and aircraft modifications and systems integration.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So is this their fault or the Armys or both ?
According to the Guardian article, it's on Telstar 11 - which is a Ku only bird. Check the footprint to see if you are in the beam. Plus, of course, you'll need a Ku LNB.
According to the guy they interviewed last night about this (someone from the US army), the planes send their surveillance to a ground station, which then sends the data to Virginia (?) via an encrypted link. The surveillance footage is analysed in Virginia, and then anything rated unclassified is sent back unencrypted; the implication being that anything rated classified is sent back encrypted.
Since (I guess) anything rated unclassified is probably available to anyone anyway, this means that this whole story is a storm in a teacup.
They are letting us see the Balkans so that people are less interested in seeing what's going on in Afghanistan. They've set up a honey pot. Or at the very least, they really want to hide what's going on in Afghanistan. I wonder what they consider the security threat model to be from a bunch of desert nomads with a lot of plastique and too much time on their hands?
Why bother.
Yeah, so let's help them out with that bandwidth crunch by /.ing their servers... :)
Figures. I think I've finally found a good use for our old satellite dish now that we've got one of those little digital satellite dishes, and I find out T11 is a Ku satellite. I wonder if it's too late to try to talk my dad into getting the Ku band add-on package.
On a slightly off-topic note, the only thing I miss about our old C-band dish was the wildfeeds back in the day. Fox not airing the game you want to see in your area? No problem. Tune to T6 (or whatever satellite they used) and flip around on the channels until you find the right game. Going out of town next week and going to miss the new episode of ST:TNG (yeah, this was a while ago)? Simply pick up your sat guide and find out where and when the wildfeed will air and watch the new episode as it's beamed out to all the local affiliates. I guess the old C-band satellite dishes did have a few uses.
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
Check this out: http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID =189&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
:(
This site has stills and videos. Unfortunately I cannot get the videos to work. Looks like they may be some kind of Windows Media Player format
--Jon
Nope. AFAIK only the larger, old-skool dishes can recieve Ku signals.
If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.