• Al-Qaïda à la recherche du talon d’Achille des drones américains | Presse russe | RIA Novosti
    http://fr.rian.ru/presse_russe/20130905/199219153.html

    Les ingénieurs d’Al-Qaïda ont reçu pour mission d’élaborer une stratégie anti-drone, comme en témoigne un rapport confidentiel du renseignement américain dévoilé au Washington Post par Edward Snowden, écrit jeudi le quotidien Nezavissimaïa gazeta.
    Selon les informations de la Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), les terroristes financent des projets de recherche pour créer des stations de brouillage, qui permettraient de perturber les signaux GPS et les balises infrarouges qui servent à orienter les opérateurs de drones.
    De plus, Al-Qaïda travaille sur des aérostats de surveillance et des appareils télécommandés de taille réduite qui devraient permettre aux terroristes de suivre la trajectoire des drones américains. Les terroristes se penchent sur la possibilité d’abattre les drones grâce aux lance-roquettes sol-air et travaillent sur des systèmes d’alerte d’approche de drones. Le commandement d’Al-Qaïda supervise tous les projets et sert de base de liaison pour échanger les succès entre diverses équipes d’ingénieurs.

    • Les méthodes bon marché pour lutter contre les drones – à l’aide de lasers et d’autres dispositifs capables d’aveugler les caméras et les capteurs des drones - ne sont plus secrètes depuis longtemps. Les chercheurs de l’université du Texas à Austin ont notamment réussi, au cours d’une expérience, à « carjacker » un drone en trompant son signal GPS avec un transmetteur terrestre et en programmant un faux itinéraire.

    • Drones and public opinion: How al-Qaida uses technology and public opinion to fight unmanned aircraft. - Slate Magazine
      http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_nature/2013/09/drones_and_public_opinion_how_al_qaida_uses_technology_and_public_opinion.htm

      (lien vers le (long) article du WP
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-documents-detail-al-qaedas-efforts-to-fight-back-against-drones/2013/09/03/b83e7654-11c0-11e3-b630-36617ca6640f_story.html )

      In today’s Washington Post, Craig Whitlock and Bart Gellman update us on al-Qaida’s efforts. Thanks to National Security Agency leaker Ed Snowden, Whitlock and Gellman have a copy of “ Threats to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ,” a classified report that distills “dozens of intelligence assessments” over the last seven years. How are the terrorists doing? Here’s a look at four of their strategies.

      1. Spot the drones. To escape a drone strike, you need advance warning. Our drones fly high, above 20,000 feet, so they’re hard to see. Al-Qaida’s projects reportedly include balloons and radio-controlled miniplanes to track the drones’ flight patterns. There’s no sign of any progress here, and no reason to expect any, given the technology al-Qaida is working with.
      2. Confuse the sensors. One al-Qaida project aims to detect laser signals that guide drone missiles to their targets. That’s just a warning system. The more serious threat, according to a U.S. Air Force report, is countertargeting of drones by “lasers and dazzlers.” This could disrupt the drone’s cameras and other instruments, blinding its human sensor operator. The Defense Intelligence Agency says al-Qaida has also funded a project to jam infrared tagging of missile targets.
      3. Break the links. The advantage of drones—remote operation—is also their weakness. The satellite transmissions that connect them to their pilots and sensor operators can be broken or hacked. The Post says satellites often move out of range or lose contact with drones. Four years ago, Iraqi insurgents used cheap software to intercept video feeds from U.S. drones. Two years ago, a drone crashed in Iran, supposedly due to malfunction, though Iran took credit and called it an “electronic ambush.” Another drone crashed on the border between Iraq and Turkey last year after losing its satellite links. U.S. researchers proved last year that a drone could be hijacked by “spoofing” its GPS signal. This is a logical target for al-Qaida’s research. But nearly all U.S. drone links are now encrypted, and there’s no sign of a hacking breakthrough.
      4. Sour the public. This, not the satellites, is the drones’ immediate weakness. If the U.S. public turns against them, the government might have to stop or limit their use. Both sides recognize this vulnerability. Two years ago, according to the Post, U.S. intelligence issued a report titled “Al-Qa’ida Explores Manipulating Public Opinion to Curb CT Pressure.” Another report warned that drone strikes “could be brought under increased scrutiny, perceived to be illegitimate, openly resisted or undermined.”