Scientists hack into flying drone!

This comes from the BBC today:

American researchers took control of a flying drone by hacking into its GPS system - acting on a $1,000 (£640) dare from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

A University of Texas at Austin team used "spoofing" - a technique where the drone mistakes the signal from hackers for the one sent from GPS satellites.

The same method may have been used to bring down a US drone in Iran in 2011.

Analysts say that the demo shows the potential danger of using drones.

Drones are unmanned aircraft, often controlled from a hub located thousands of kilometres away.

www.bbc.com...

This is a very interesting story, and a great way for the DHS to test the susceptibility of drones to hacking.

This raises big concerns for me about the use of drones in modern warfare. I know that some drones these days are used for suveillance, and some can be fitted with warheads. Furthermore, now that this story has come out, will it give ideas to 'enemy' governments? If I were running Iran right now, I would get my scientists onto this pronto, so that they can intercept Israeli drones (if they have not done so already, as the news snippet suggests they have).

Do you think it is possible to create a completely 'hack-proof' drone? If not, then should we discontinue their use?

reply to post by chemistry


This is an excuse to use drones as weapons and blame it on a hacker.


what better way to send drones on missions , that happen to hit the wrong target , and kill someone ?

Then say it was the hackers that did it . They can get away with so many unsuspecting assasinations and just blame the hackers . Its a great tool .

Anything can be hacked , given enough time .

reply to post by seedofchucky


exactly
however i bet china will have fun with this though
with their millions of hackers

Originally posted by seedofchucky
reply to post by chemistry

 

This is an excuse to use drones as weapons and blame it on a hacker.


what better way to send drones on missions , that happen to hit the wrong target , and kill someone ?

Then say it was the hackers that did it . They can get away with so many unsuspecting assasinations and just blame the hackers . Its a great tool .

Anything can be hacked , given enough time .

1
Wow! Great comment! I didn't even think of that!

US military will shut off the civilian GPS and go to an encrypted system if needed.

Awesome. And, yes... scary.


Oh, and Hookem \m/.

There is an existing thread on this topic:
www.abovetopsecret.com...



Please add further comments, queries or concerns to the ongoing discussion.



Thank you



-thread closed-



for future reference:
Search ATS