Iran hacks 2 spy drones near air borders, intercepts operator chatter

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
24 Apr 2023 19:42

The Iranian Rear Admiral says Tehran's adversaries realize by now the Islamic Republic's advanced cyberwarfare powers.

Chief of Iranian Defense Ministry's Electronics Industries Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari (Tehran Times)

Iran hacked two spy drones in the vicinity of its borders and was able to intercept a conversation between a UAV operator and his command base, Chief of Iranian Defense Ministry's Electronics Industries Rear Admiral Amir Rastegari told Tasnim news agency, without specifying the date of the cyber infiltration or who the drones belonged to.

"Some time ago an enemy aircraft moved within our FIR [Flight information region] borders and started emitting waves to gather intelligence, we disrupted the activity of the aircraft. The pilot of the aircraft thought that the system had a problem, so he called the base that the aircraft system had a problem and I will return; We have their conversations," said Rastegari during an interview for the agency.

"The next day, two more planes flew and started spying, this time we disrupted both of them because we have achieved the capability in that bandwidth," he added.

Rastegari went on to say, "We have been engaged in electronic warfare for many years to protect the country's space and air border, and every attacker who has tested it has realized our power."

The United States has been known to try and violate Iran's airspace for years now.

On December 5, 2011, Tehran was able to hack and land safely a US Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel drone near the city of Kashmar northeast of the country. Iranian scientists were then able to reverse engineer the advanced UAV, which allowed the military-industrial complex to produce the same model that was later delivered to the Iranian army.