Lack of Predator video encryption raises questions

The story “Military Predator video intercepted by Iraqis" sparked some strongly worded comments by readers who were stunned that the military had failed to encrypt Predator video feeds and also questioned whether the initial Wall Street Journal story compromised national security.

A commenter named Dan was shocked to find that the military had known about the problem for at least a year. “That is not a technically savvy enemy, that is the military showing a severe lack of intellectual acuity,” he wrote.

An anonymous reader said all military communications other than public notices and news bulletins should be encrypted. “Why these drones ever deployed without every signal being encrypted is beyond my comprehension. It should have been part of the original design specification,” the commenter wrote.

Another anonymous reader agreed, stating that too much sensitive military information is available to the public and questioning the media’s decision to reveal information about the intercepted video feeds to the public.

“There is way more flow of information than we need to know,” the commenter wrote. “We spend all of this money for defense purposes, and then we divulge what many of us consider sensitive to the military’s mission. What happened to common sense?”

Yet another anonymous commenter noted that encryption can have an adverse effect on the real-time capabilities of drone video feeds. The military wants the video feed as close to real-time as possible, the commenter noted. "With encryption being another layer added, it’s going to increase the amount of time needed to transmit.”