Company Strongly Condemns The Practice

Hackers are making it easy for DJI drone operators to get around the geofencing function included in the firmware of DJI drones, and the company is taking steps to thwart the practice.

ZDNet relays a report from Motherboard indicating that such firmware patches are being made available at various locations on the Internet.

The dronemaker is reportedly "very concerned" about legal action, and does not want its aircraft to be involved in incidents where operators violate the law. The company has begun a firmware update campaign to close holes in the firmware use to circumvent its No Fly Zone (NFZ) restrictions in the past few weeks. It has also started removing older versions of the firmware thought to be vulnerable from its servers.

DJI spokesman Victor Wang, DJI's technology security director, told Motherboard that "unauthorized modification of a DJI drone is not recommended, as it can cause unstable flight behavior that could make operating the drone unsafe. DJI is not responsible for the performance of a modified drone and we strongly condemn any user who attempts to modify their drone for illegal or unsafe use."

(Images from file)

FMI: Original Report