Crossroads Blog | Institute National Security and Counterterrorism

cyber attack

Iran Unlikely To Have Used Cyberattack To Bring Down Drone: Washington Post

On Dec. 5th, 2011, Ellen Nakashima reported for the Washington Post that if Iran did down a US drone, it's highly doubtful that it was “downed with help from the Iranian military’s electronic warfare unit."  The article explained that this cyberattack is highly unlikely because the the communications antenna on the RQ-170 are on the top of the drone (making it difficult to intercept the signal), and the drone's very stealthy nature makes it unlikely that it was hacked.  The article also noted that if Iran did capture a RQ-170,  there "is a 95 percent chance that [the drone] just malfunctioned” as opposed to a cyberattack.

***

David Axe also wrote for Wired on how it is unlikely that Iran captured an RQ-170 intact.

***

And now FoxNews reports that US military sources have confirmed that the Iranians have the RQ-170 drone.

Leave a Reply

Bitnami