14 DAY TRIAL // Recent documents revealed by Edward Snowden show that the US' National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) hacked into the video feeds of Israeli unmanned air vehicles (UAVs, drones).
Like most military airplanes these days, drones are equipped with video cameras. While they are not used for flying, these cameras are used for recording reconnaissance material or to visually inspect the aircraft for damages.
Like any camera, the data acquired is neatly encoded and sent to satellites and then to military bases or other special ground stations.
According to documents released by Snowden, the US and the UK set up a ground station of their own in Troodos, Cyprus, in 1998, specifically for intercepting video feeds from Israeli drones.
They cast a wide net over many downlink video feeds but did eventually narrow down their interception by discovering each drone's individual frequency. The technique is similar to listening in on police radio frequencies, and was also used against the US in 2009, in the Iraq war.
The drone's encrypted video feed did not stop US and UK agents
But things were as simple. In 1997, Israel discovered that Hezbollah killed 12 Israeli commando forces after they had intercepted unencrypted drone surveillance video feeds. Since then, Israel deployed encryption for its drone video feeds.
This didn't stop US and UK agents, who discovered back in 2008 that by taking periodic screenshots of the encrypted video feeds, they could use a C library called AntiSky to unscramble some of the images, and get an acceptable photo of what the drone's camera was recording at that moment.
While the spy agencies did not manage to tap into a live video feed, this information was used to identify each drone, and later keep tabs on its whereabouts and the military missions the Israeli army carrying out at that moment. Additionally, the intervals at which this snapshot could be taken could be very small, creating an artificial semi-live feed.
The technique that was perfected against Israel's drone fleet can also be employed against other countries, since Israel is the world's authority on military UAVs, leading all countries when it comes to drone exports.
For the actual documents, the political ramifications and a timeline breakdown of the whole events, you can check an article on The Intercept, the source through which Edward Snowden regularly releases all his documents.
