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. So then it is very easy to hack such a drone.’ And it might be just as easy to hack into the drone control system of other brands. The 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. What already is possible, is jamming the WiFi-signal of the DJI. If the radio frequency between a drone and the controller is jammed, the drone becomes uncontrollable. Most 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.ar drone 2 site officiel How about security forces? cod black ops 2 quadrotor droneIn The Netherlands, the police is exploring ways to take over control of UAVs, and track down the location of the operators.x rebirth drone scan For national security that might seem useful: the police intercepting drones filled with explosives, flying them to a safe location. buy parrot ar drone south africaBut 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. parrot ar drone won't take off

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. drone it yourself achatIf 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 reporterDrone can hijack other quadcopters' WiFi link (video) There might come a time when you'll wait for a drone instead of a truck for your Amazon or UPS package, while worrying about tech-savvy thieves instead of armed robbers. Let's just hope no ne'er-do-well uses Samy Kamkar's SkyJack for evil, because the software can worm its way into flying machines to take over their brains. Kamkar, who hacks things presumably to spread security awareness, loaded the offending code onto a Raspberry Pi-equipped Parrot AR.The result is a flying contraption that's capable of seeking out other drones' wireless signals and forcefully severing their connection from their true owners. Worse, the software works just as well installed on a land-based computer. Curious folks can check out Kamkar's video after the break for a quick demo, but those tech-savvy enough can get a deeper understanding through SkyJack's source code.