Texas Students Hijack a U.S. Government Drone in Midair

Sorry if this is posted already or in the wrong category. I found this story hilarious in respect that somebody would probably have crapped their camo pants when it happened and scary in respect that it can happen so easily. DHS dared them to do it.
Popular Science

reply to post by GoldenRuled


nice. so now we have to worry about random hackers and secret groups hijacking drones. you figure with all this technology, they could at least make it a little more secure. it's to the point where we don't really know who the bad guys are anymore

Wow. Maybe script kiddies will save the world one day!.. or destroy it..

I believe this may have already been posted, multiple times.

The government challenged them to do it

Originally posted by couldbeanyone
reply to post by GoldenRuled

 

it's to the point where we don't really know who the bad guys are anymore

Nope the cast for "bad guy" remains the same as it always has been.

Originally posted by couldbeanyone
reply to post by GoldenRuled

 

nice. so now we have to worry about random hackers and secret groups hijacking drones. you figure with all this technology, they could at least make it a little more secure. it's to the point where we don't really know who the bad guys are anymore

Well it is a lot less worrying then having the government/army/agencies in control of them.

I love how the author of the article writes this article in such a way that conveys that there is absolutely nothing wrong with having these drones hover over our own American soil. Our right to privacy is being slowly stripped from us under the guise of "security".

Wake up folks, your four times more likely to be killed by lightning than a terrorist attack.

Edit: Double post, sorry.

Nice.. Well for those who didn't click the link.. here is how they did it..


"They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone's GPS."

Originally posted by SickeningTruths
Nice.. Well for those who didn't click the link.. here is how they did it..


"They managed to do it through spoofing, a technique where a signal from hackers pretends to be the same as one sent to the drone's GPS."

I thought about pointing that out but figured only a few would understand the huge distinction between spoofing the gps and actually hacking the datalink.

Regardless, excellent point that will be lost on many choosing to comment on the thread.

reply to post by Drunkenparrot


Here are the facts of the matter, this does not apply to any type of government drone system. More factually inaccurate hyperbole through the filter of mass media...

Researchers use spoofing to 'hack' into a flying drone

Todd Humphreys and his colleagues from the Radionavigation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin hacked the GPS system of a drone belonging to the university.

They demonstrated the technique to DHS officials, using a mini helicopter drone, flown over a stadium in Austin, said Fox News, who broke the story.

....The spoofed drone used an unencrypted GPS signal, which is normally used by civilian planes, says Noel Sharkey, co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control.

"It's easy to spoof an unencrypted drone. Anybody technically skilled could do this - it would cost them some £700 for the equipment and that's it," he told BBC News.

Edit to add: Military drones like Predator and Reaper use extremely sophisticated inertial navigation systems and autopilot software in conjunction with GPS. If the aircraft receives contradictory GPS information it recognises there is a problem, defaults to inertial navigation and flies itself home.