Much ado has been made recently about the “hacked” predator drones used by the US military in Iraq. Now comes word from the Boston Globe that such a threat could potentially affect thousands of Talon Robots used by the US in their Iraq/Afghanistan operations. While there have been no publicly reported confirmed cases of a robotic ground-based video feed being intercepted, officials admitted that up until 2007 the feeds were not encrypted.
Surprisingly, however, an official from Qinetiq North America, the manufacturer of the Tallon Battlefield Robot noted that the robots were subject to electronic frequency jamming. The same technology had been used by the US military to prevent radio frequency detonation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). As widely reported in the media, troops on patrol would routinely deploy radio jamming devices around moving troops and convoys to prevent road side bomb attacks by insurgents. Smart solution to a difficult problem.
Unfortunately, it was also discovered that the jamming technology interfered with the robots themselves and prevented communication with them. While electronic warfare is an relatively old domain, the presence of battlefield (and perhaps police robots) means there is a whole additional set of technologies which need to be fully understood and protected prior to deployment in real world scenarios.
As the the news story below indicates, the Tallon battlefield robots were accidentally subjected to electronic jamming by their own masters. As the use of military or law enforcement robots grows, one could certainly envision them moving in large numbers across the battlefield engaging the enemy. That is until the enemy turns on a $25 dollar electronic jamming device and all robots on the battle field fall to their proverbial knees. Of course doing so would be illegal, would require a strong jamming device and a bit of research, much of which is available online.
As recently admitted, coalition forces had underestimated the sophistication and ability of the enemy to intercept their Predator drone video feeds. Thus officials would be wise not to make the same mistake again with regards to battlefield robots. Security in deploying these devices has to be paramount in order for them to be used reliably in any true operational situation.
How far away are we from having hackers target unique or common Robotic Operating Systems (ROS)? In these cases, not only would the “bad guys” get access to any video feeds, but they might be able to turn these heavily armed robots against their rightful owners: a terrifying scenario indeed. Of course, the more likely scenario is that a simple robotic malfunction might injure or kill to troops or officers using the device, as recently happened in South Africa.
There is no doubt that military and law enforcement use of robots is clearly the wave of the future (and indeed the present). Nevertheless, significant additional research and security hardening will be required to ensure that military, police and security operational robots are abused by the terrorists or criminals they are intended to track.
Battlefield robot had security hole
By Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe Staff
Insurgents could steal video before local firm made fix
December 19, 2009
The same security weakness that allowed Iraqi insurgents to record video from unmanned US surveillance aircraft might also have let them spy on American battlefield robots produced by a local firm.
For years, Talon robots, made by Qinetiq North America Operations LLC in Waltham, transmitted analog video images without the encryption that scrambles signals to prevent them from being intercepted. As a result, videos from the robots could have been viewed and recorded by anybody with a laptop and a television receiver, including adversaries.
The US military has purchased more than 3,000 Talon robots. Many are used for video surveillance patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Qinetiq officials said the security hole was plugged in 2007, when Talons received upgraded video equipment.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that laptop computers belonging to captured Iraqi insurgents contained video images from US surveillance drones. The insurgents had used TV receiving gear and a cheap piece of software purchased on the Internet to record unencrypted video from the aircraft.
There’s no evidence that enemy forces actually tapped into video feeds from the Talon robots. But Eric Rosenbach, executive director of research at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, expressed surprise that the military would ever transmit battlefield data over an insecure channel. “It’s common practice and standard operating procedure that any communication from the military is encrypted if it’s even remotely sensitive,’’ said Rosenbach, who served as an Army intelligence officer in Bosnia.
Bob Quinn, Qinetiq’s vice president of Talon robot operations, said that in 2007, the company refitted the robots with new digital video systems and added encryption. “Over 2,000 robots, in our case, have been upgraded,’’ Quinn said, but he added that the upgrade was not prompted in any way by concerns about spying.
Instead, the change was a consequence of the military’s efforts to reduce the terrible toll inflicted on US troops by roadside bombs in Iraq. Many of the bombs were detonated remotely by radio transmitters such as cellphones. The US Army responded by deploying Talon robots along key roadways to seek out the bombs and by equipping supply convoys with powerful radio jammers. The jammers created a sort of electronic bubble around the convoy, so that nearby radio-controlled bombs could not be detonated.
“The robots have to be able to work inside that protective electronic bubble,’’ said Quinn. But the jamming blocked the robots’ analog video signals, making them useless for surveillance. The 2007 digital video upgrade solved the problem and also ensured that insurgents couldn’t view the videos with conventional equipment.
Quinn said that there was never any risk that an enemy hacker could have taken command of a Talon, because the robot’s remote control system has always used an encrypted digital radio system. Letting a Talon come under enemy control could have deadly consequences, as some are equipped with remotely-controlled machine guns.
But just being able to see surveillance video could be very useful to an enemy. “It gives them the ability to know where and how the US is surveilling targets,’’ said Rosenbach. For instance, an insurgent could use intercepted video to warn his comrades that one of their “safe houses’’ was actually being watched by the Americans.
The US military has purchased thousands of robots from another Massachusetts company, iRobot Corp. of Bedford. Like the Qinetiq Talon, iRobot’s PackBot is frequently equipped with video cameras for surveillance work. But the company won’t say whether its video feeds are encrypted. IRobot spokeswoman Nancy Dussault-Smith said the company “does not comment on communications security or other operational security topics.’’
