So this exists: LE drones can be hacked

March 7, 2016
Yeah, didn't think about that ... sigh.

According to a recent article in WIRED, already purchased police department drones can be hacked. To the law enforcement agencies out there having not purchased a UAV yet, points to you. Que this up to waiting for time to iron out potentially major wrinkles before rushing onto new technology. And this has the potential to be one major wrinkle.

The article introduces us to Nils Rodday, a security researcher, who is on the books for a presentation at the upcoming RSA Conference. There he plans to explain how he hacked into a quite expensive UAV, taking over full control with "just a laptop and a cheap radio chip connected via USB." We learn that he apparently found a backdoor ... no, more like a wide-open barn door letting all the chickens wander cage-free ... in the controller-to-equipment communication signal. He now works at IBM - so he knows his stuff - but the research was done prior to his hiring.

Imagine your department authorizes the use of the drone in your trunk. You drive over to the scene, launch, and suddenly it's acting erratically: flying left when you're telling it right, moving the camera away from the hiding suspect, it crashes into a nearby building (imagine the public relations issues there), or just simply disappears. All this can be done, says Rodday, from a mile away.

But Rodday's a nice guy, "he believes the vulerabilities may apply to a broad swathe of high-end drones." So he's gone to a UAS manufacturers informing them of the issue. It's just that, according to the article, fixing the equipment won't be as easy as downloading this week's iTunes file. Firmware apparently won't cut it. Equipment might have to be recalled, new chips installed, new software protocols programmed ... some authentication added. Only time will tell how manufacturers will handle the issue.

But all this is based on a wireless radio broadcast connection. There are UAVs out there connected by tether, like the aptly named Tethered Drone, or the Blimp-in-a-Box (admit it, the second is just fun to say).

Are you the techie in the department? Yes? Great. If not, find that officer's email and send them Rodday's presentation provided on the RSA Conference website. It goes into some serious depths and flies just over my head. Oh, and don't forget to send over the WIRED article too.

Sources:

WIRED, "Hacker says he can hijack a $35K police drone a mile away", http://www.wired.com/2016/03/hacker-says-can-hijack-35k-police-drone-mile-away/

Nils Rodday's RSA Security Conference in San Francisco presentation, "Hacking a professional drone", https://www.rsaconference.com/writable/presentations/file_upload/ht-w03-hacking_a_professional_police_drone.pdf

Blog on Reason.com, "Can you hack a police drone? This guy says he can.", http://reason.com/blog/2016/03/05/can-you-hack-a-police-drone-this-guy-say

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