WASHINGTON: Speculation on how Iran was able to capture the Pentagon’s stealthy RQ-170 unmanned aircraft has consumed defense and intelligence insiders for weeks. But recent reports based on sources in Tehran claim the highly-classified drone was brought down by an Iranian cyberattack.

Iranian engineers were allegedly able to hack into the unmanned aircraft’s control systems and trick the drone’s guidance systems to think it was landing in U.S-held territory in Afghanistan. In fact, Iranian hackers guided the CIA-operated aerial drone to land in Iran, according to today’s story in the Christian Science Monitor. The so-called ‘Beast of Kandahar’ was conducting intelligence operations over Iran at the time of its capture. Gaps in the plane’s global positioning system allowed Iranian military officials to take control of the plane from its CIA handlers. Iranian intelligence learned about the GPS vulnerabilities by examining other American drones captured by Tehran, according to the story. Keep reading →