South: Cyber attackers can hijack drones

A leading Cyber Security expert has warned about the increasing dangers of hackers taking control of drones in mid-flight.

Matt Horan of C3IA Solutions, the Dorset-based Cyber Security company, said it is just one of the latest threats in the cyber-sphere.

There are 200,000 commercial drones – or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – sold every month worldwide, so there are increasing opportunities for them to be hacked. Drones also operate in very public arenas, such as sports stadia, in crowd control situations and for crime fighting. Dorset police has just launched its new drone unit and other forces and emergency services will follow. Drones are also used by drugs cartels in South America, by terrorist groups such as Hezbollah to launch air strikes and by insurgent groups in the Ukraine to attack Russia.

Matt Horan said: “It is easy for anyone to ‘hijack’ a drone and take control of it away from the legitimate owner and then direct its actions. If the software is not ‘locked-down’ it can be ‘re-coded on the fly’. So the vulnerabilities – or attack vectors – need to be suitably mitigated by technical controls. The fact that drones are vulnerable is not anything new; as with all technology, security is rarely considered important at the outset. As drones become more and more of use in our day-to-day lives we must carefully consider what the consequences are of such devices flying, literally, out of control. There are potential impacts on human and animal safety, financial loss due to damage of the drone and damage to property. Potentially, drones could be used as a weapon, either directly or by carrying a destructive payload. They could be flown towards aeroplanes or crashed onto motorways. There are implications about personal privacy through the utilisation of cameras or video capability enabling live downloading of images as they are taken or filmed.

“While there are strict rules about who can fly drones, and where, hackers with sinister motives won’t worry about these. Emergency services are protecting their drones but many others won’t be. Essentially you get what you pay for, and protecting them from cyber-attack will cost money.

“In some cases birds of prey are being trained to take drones out of the sky, such is the threat of cyber-attack.

“The important thing, however, is that people are aware of this threat. More and everyday technology is vulnerable to hackers and awareness is the first step to combating it.”

C3IA Solutions is based in Poole.