A remote controlled drone, I can surely hijack that, Samy Kamkar mused in 2013. He rebuilt a Parrot AR.Drone, mounted it with a Raspberry Pi (mini computer), and baptised it SkyJack. The device autonomously tracks down other Parrot drones and takes over control. It was easier than I thought, Kamkar tells in an e-mail correspondence with Your Flying Reporter. To take over control, all you need is a radio that can transmit and receive on one of the frequencies the drone uses, Kamkar writes. ‘Depending on the drone this can be Wi-Fi, non-Wi-Fi, GPS or another bandwidth.’ In an admirably smart PR move, Kamkar launched his hijacker-drone one day after Amazon announced its plans to deliver packages by drone. His story was picked up all over the world. Befitting a white hat hacker, he published all SkyJack’s specifications, including open source software, so that anyone can build it (and drone producers can take measures). It wasn’t even that hard, assures Kamkar: ‘It depends on the security involved how easy a drone is to hack into.

Drone has no security, and the last time I checked it still had not found a way to add authentication or encryption. parrot ar drone peepingSo then it is very easy to hack such a drone.’ar drone parrot auchan And it might be just as easy to hack into the drone control system of other brands. parrot ar drone dosahThe popular DJI also uses the Wi-Fi channel, and on a Github hackersforum it is claimed (but not yet proven) that these drones are insecure, and it is only a matter of time until these will be hijacked too.ar drone 2 prisjakt What already is possible, is jamming the WiFi-signal of the DJI. call of duty black ops 2 dragonfire drone for sale

If the radio frequency between a drone and the controller is jammed, the drone becomes uncontrollable. parrot ar drone opladenMost new DJI models are equipped with GPS, so that they automatically return to the drone pilot if the wifi signal is jammed. But this return flight is depending on GPS-signals, and these can be jammed too. Kamkar: ‘Radio frequency jamming either takes a level of technical sophistication, a search on the internet for schematics to create a jammer, or simply the online purchase of one. As a note: most countries have banned the usage and possession of jammers and blocking devices. How about security forces? In The Netherlands, the police is exploring ways to take over control of UAVs, and track down the location of the operators. For national security that might seem useful: the police intercepting drones filled with explosives, flying them to a safe location. But once security bodies can make use of such a system, it is easy to bring all kinds of devices to the ground, claiming subsequently it was a security measure.

The development in the Netherlands concerns drone-expert and jurist Dr. David Goldberg. ‘(journalists) may be pursuing investigative reporting, and use the drone for a legitimate news gathering purpose. If that can be somehow obstructed by the police or security service, that seems to me rather worrying. The issue then is: does the journalist have a right to use his flying camera, even if the authorities disagree.’ A signal interference on your drone doesn’t mean that hackers are targetting you. According Dutch drone specialist Peter van Leeuwen, many companies secure their wifi-networks using a wifi-jammer. If you fly near company building, your drone signal can be jammed because of that, as most drones fly at 2.4 Ghz, the same frequency used by local wifi networks. Some U.S. model aircraft pilots on the forum of FVPLab on  noted that military bases are jamming their radio signals as soon as they fly too close to military bases. According to these pilots the military bases jam signals on various frequencies.

In 2008 the Wall street Journal reported that Iraqi militias intercepted video files from a American Predator. It is likely the militias used Skygrabber, a 26 dollar software package, that can be employed to intercept music- and video files, downloaded by others. According to Wired it was it at least possible until 2012 to intercept videos from military drones . That is how hard it apparently is to prevent it. According to Kamkar it is child’s play to intercept the video signal that a news drone sends to a journalist on the ground. ‘Many drones and video transmitters have little security, he says. And that can be a problem for a reporter. While he is busy gathering the news, someone else can intercept and publish the footage. That raises a legal issue: is it prohibitted to intercept video signals from an open frequency? Is the drone a flying TV-broadcaster or a flying camera? And, when the drone pilot is a journalist, can his data be protected the same way his sources are protected?

You can read more on privacy issues in the DND editorial: Little brother peeking drone reporterA 3D printed aerial imaging drone, new drone sightings data analysis, a hand gesture-based controller for the Parrot AR, bad practice lawsuits, control of airspace over private property, and an autonomous aerial taxi. Singapore-based startup has created the Captor UAS, said to be a high-quality aerial imaging drone with a 3D printed body. The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) has analyzed recent FAA drone sighting data and finds that UAS sightings peaked in August 2015, but have been declining month-by-month since then. The Power Glove was released in 1989 as a controller accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Only two games were available, and they did not sell well. Nolan Moore has now taken a Power Glove and turned it into a hand gesture-based controller for the Parrot AR Drone. You can follow Moore’s the development on his . Two lawsuits are underway for the Connecticut student who mounted a gun then a flamethrower on a quadcopter.

One suit seeks to reinstate him at Central Connecticut State University, which expelled him. The other lawsuit concerns failure to comply with FAA administrative subpoenas for certain records. This article presents the opposing views of two legal experts concerning the legal right to fly a UAV over private property. One contends that privacy and safety considerations dictate that flights unauthorized by the property owner should not be allowed.The other expert says drones are the next frontier in aviation and decisions about where drones they can fly should be made collectively. Ehang has received approval from the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development to test the autonomous aerial taxi. A prototype of the Ehang 184 was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. EHANG184, world’s first Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Students from the Auckland University of Technology were looking at dolphins when they spotted the rare Bryde whale off the coast of New Zealand.