Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Iraqi Insurgents Hack US Drones in 'Shadow Cyber War'

by anderson

A rather interesting development: insurgents have been hacking and jacking video feeds from US military Predator drones.  Naturally, the Iranians get a mention, well, just because.

Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept
live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them
with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed
insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an
unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes'
systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as
SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to
regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar
with reports on the matter.








U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to
take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights.
Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield
advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions
and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and
buildings are under U.S. surveillance.








The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within
the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially
serious vulnerability in Washington's growing network of unmanned
drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both
Afghanistan and Pakistan.










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1 comment:

  1. EarlDecember 17, 2009 at 1:33 AM

    Naturally, the Iranians get a mention, well, just because.I'm going to need a new monitor, now...
    Great line.

    ReplyDelete

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