Iraqi militants are intercepting sensitive video feeds from US predator drones using $26 off-the-shelf software, and the same technique leaves feeds from most military aircraft vulnerable to snooping, according to published reports. Insurgents backed by Iran have regularly accessed the unencrypted video feeds of the unmanned planes, which the Obama administration has increasingly relied on to monitor and attack militants. The insurgents then share the footage with multiple extremist groups, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, which was published Thursday. It's not clear if the problem has been fixed. The security lapse was discovered late last year when US military personnel in Iraq apprehended a Shiite militant with a laptop that contained intercepted drone video feeds. In July, personnel found additional feeds on other militant laptops, leading some officials to believe that groups tied to Iran were regularly tapping in to the unprotected communications link used by the drones.
