Took Control Of Three Consumer Drones To Demonstrate Security Vulnerabilities

At a drone privacy workshop in October, the Federal Trade Commission demonstrated that they were able to hack into three popular drones all costing less than $200.

The agency hacked into an AR Drone Elite Quadcopter from Parrot, the Hawkeye II 2nd FPV Motion Sensing Quadcopter from DBPower and the oneCase CX-10w made by Cheerson, according to documents obtained by the web site Recode through a Freedom of Information Act request. The agency did not specify which techniques affected which drones.

The FTC said that researchers were able to take over the video feeds of all three drones because none of the data that was sent was encrypted. They were able to take control of two of the aircraft while in flight, causing them to turn or fall from the air.

The smartphone apps for the drones gave no indication that the aircraft was being hacked. And each of the drones acted as a Wi-Fi access point, allowing devices to connect to the drone like a home router, but with no passcode.

The FTC was also able to demonstrate that it could take over the transmissions to the aircraft, causing it to crash.

The FTC said that manufacturers can make their aircraft more secure by encrypting the Wi-Fi signal that controls the aircraft, and adding password protection, according to the report.

(Image from file)

FMI: www.ftc.gov