DHS Issues Warning about Hobbyist Drones

DHS Issues Warning about Hobbyist Drones

Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report, warning to law enforcement agencies that recreational drones could be used by adversaries to attack the United States. No known threats were mentioned, but regular reports have revealed small, remote-controlled drones having close calls with commercial flights and firefighting air tankers. In California, for example, recreational drones grounded tankers, preventing them from fighting the fires that are plaguing the state until law enforcement found the owners of the drones and ordered them to land.

The report also mentioned that drones “could be used by adversaries to leverage UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) as part of an attack” and “emerging adversary use of UAS present detection and disruption challenges.”

There have also been a number of international incidents with terrorists and other criminal organizations using drones to support violent activities. For example, ISIS used a UAS to record video footage of an Iraq oil refinery in 2014, using the data to support an assault.

During the past three years, 500 drone encounters have presented themselves at various locations around the United States. Of the 500, 218 have been related to aviation. In this month alone, there have been three already been three drone sightings at JFK airport. One sighting caused a pilot in a personal aircraft to make a sudden swerve when he saw an UAS at approximately 1,000 feet in the air.

Many of the drone encounters have not been and probably won’t be malicious, but it causes pause and thought to potential security vulnerabilities that adversaries could leverage to attack.

Image: Kletr / Shutterstock.com

About the Author

Ginger Hill is Group Social Media Manager.

Featured

New Products

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • Unified VMS

    AxxonSoft introduces version 2.0 of the Axxon One VMS. The new release features integrations with various physical security systems, making Axxon One a unified VMS. Other enhancements include new AI video analytics and intelligent search functions, hardened cybersecurity, usability and performance improvements, and expanded cloud capabilities

  • FEP GameChanger

    FEP GameChanger

    Paige Datacom Solutions Introduces Important and Innovative Cabling Products GameChanger Cable, a proven and patented solution that significantly exceeds the reach of traditional category cable will now have a FEP/FEP construction.