Civilian Drones Vulnerable to Hackers, Can Be Hijacked, Used as Missiles
Civilian Drones Vulnerable to Hackers, Can Be Hijacked, Used as Missiles
Darlene Storm | Computerworld
While having coffee and trying to clear the sleep cobwebs from my brain, I saw a headline that reminded me of Black Ops 2 casting Anonymous as cyber-terrorists hacking drones for targeted killings. Fox News claimed, “Drones vulnerable to terrorist hijacking.” Surely this was satire, a spoof? After reading about and watching a video titled “Drones Can be Hijacked and Used as Missiles,” I discovered the spoof part was right, but it was GPS spoofing by researchers that proved malicious hackers or terrorists could take control of civilian drones.
The University of Texas at Austin’s Radionavigation Laboratory demonstrated hacking a civilian drone, forcing it to change course by sending fake GPS signals, and then, “as if some phantom has given the drone a self-destruct order, it hurtles toward the ground.” At the last second, the drone was spared but Professor Todd Humphreys and his team were pleased. They had successfully proved “a gaping hole in the government’s plan to open US airspace to thousands of drones. They could be turned into weapons.” Humphreys told Fox News, “Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is just another way of hijacking a plane.”
GPS jamming had been the “main problem,” but now with the “right equipment, anyone can take control of a GPS-guided drone and make it do anything they want it to,” Fox reported.
MORE:
http://droneswatch.org/2012/06/26/civilian-drones-vulnerable-to-hackers-can-be-hijacked-used-as-missiles/
= new reply since forum marked as read
That must be sumthin'. 
