Iran hacked U.S. drone cyber system – former CIA officer

PanARMENIAN.Net - Commenting on Iran's recent downing of an aggressive U.S. drone, a former CIA agent says the Iranian Army's experts managed to hack the aircraft's cyber system and then brought it down, Press TV reports.

“The downing of the drone by Iran was another defeat for the United States in the area of espionage,” Robert Baer, a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, who used to operate in the Middle East, was quoted by French-language Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes as saying.

On December 4, the Iranian military's electronic warfare unit announced that Iran had downed with minimal damage the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance aircraft, while it was in violation of the Iranian airspace.

The aircraft, designed and developed by the American company Lockheed Martin, had crossed Iran's border with Afghanistan and was brought down as it was flying above the northeastern city of Kashmar.

Baer also expressed concern about Iran's access to the sophisticated technology of the stealth aircraft, particularly the operational mechanism of its image-recording camera.

Iran has announced that it intends to carry out reverse engineering on the aerial vehicle, which is also known as the Beast of Kandahar, and is similar in design to a U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber.

On December 6, two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the drone had been part of a CIA reconnaissance mission, involving the U.S. intelligence community stationed in Afghanistan.

Tehran has urged the United Nations to condemn such contravention and adopt necessary measures to end the 'dangerous and illegal' acts.