Department of Interior Grounds Its Drones Amid Cybersecurity Concerns (techcrunch.com) 29
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The U.S. Department of the Interior has confirmed it has grounded its fleet of non-emergency drones amid concerns over cybersecurity. In a brief statement, the department said the move will help to ensure that "the technology used for these operations is such that it will not compromise our national security interests." Interior spokesperson Carol Danko said the department affirms with a formal order the "temporary cessation of non-emergency drones while we ensure that cybersecurity, technology and domestic production concerns are adequately addressed," months after the department said it was grounding its approximately 800 drones. But the drones will still be used for emergency purposes, such as search and rescue and assisting with natural disasters, the statement said.
The order did not specifically mention threats from China, but said that information collected during drone missions "has the potential to be valuable to foreign entities, organizations, and governments." Danko told TechCrunch that the department currently has 121 drones made by DJI and 665 drones that are Chinese-built but not made by DJI. She added that 24 drones are made in the U.S. but have Chinese components. "The review is to help us identify and assess any potential threats or risks," said Danko.
The order did not specifically mention threats from China, but said that information collected during drone missions "has the potential to be valuable to foreign entities, organizations, and governments." Danko told TechCrunch that the department currently has 121 drones made by DJI and 665 drones that are Chinese-built but not made by DJI. She added that 24 drones are made in the U.S. but have Chinese components. "The review is to help us identify and assess any potential threats or risks," said Danko.
Interesting... (Score:2)
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Maybe those mysterious drone swarms people have been complaining about in Colorado. Maybe some hackers hijacked em and were flying their own missions at night, lol.
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I am assuming DJI have full access to all of the videos I have made with my drone. I hope they enjoy watching my dog run about the place.
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Maybe it is because you cannot use a DJI drone without logging into the DJI cloud first.
Is this really true? I've always assumed that drones are just flying IP cameras. Now there are IP cameras made by companies notorious for pushing their cloud architecture to users who want tap and swipe convenience (e.g. Xiaomi and its "smart" home range of devices that include kettles, light bulbs and even power extension cords). But quite often these products operate on top of HTTP hacks obscured by fancy GUIs that can be bypassed if one can sniff the "secret" URL that the smart ape sends to the device.
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I think that's true for DJI, maybe some others. If you build your own can make it how you want it. Buying commercial off the shelf and you get what the options are. Not sure why there isn't an approved vendor for government friendly drone suppliers where software has been audited, etc...
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DJI’s drones only require an internet connection for their initial activation. It’s the same sort of thing Apple does with all their iDevices.
Once activated, the drones are completely controlled by the pilot on the ground. The internet plays no part in it. Yeah, the app you’re required to install on a smart device (phone or tablet) could have spyware or backdoors, but that’s why any decent security policy involves air-gapping that shit from anything important. You don’t con
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Great point. Even if there isn't, I'm sure there is a boardroom of people saying there certainly can be, any day now.
I'm routinely stunned that even the military can't build their own stuff at this level. It's a drone. It's an aircraft with sensors. You'd think it wouldn't be open to the internet. You'd think the military can build their own camera from bare/base/basic/raw components. You'd think they could write their own network stack secure enough for simple authenticated communications.
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Yea, you'd think they wouldn't hire Microsoft as a defense contractor, too, after decades of their willfully atrocious security standards... yet, here we are.
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Right, I'd forgotten about that already! I don't understand why the military can't do things on their own. It's not like data-centres are mysteries these days. And it's not like the military can't easily poach the talent.
It seems like the military has forgotten why the military exists. You can't hire for-profit commercial businesses, and expect them to operate for anything other than profit. The military is one of the very few parts of society that doesn't consider profit as the number one priority.
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Okay, could you please point to where DoD is hiding its production facilities? They'll need a plant, qualified engineers, production equipment, production people, sources of supply (and no sneaky using those crafty Chinese parts to lower the cost), a steady market in the rest of the government, etc. Last we heard, DoD is in the business of using said equipment, not producing said equipment.
Then we haven't yet discussed where DoD would put this plant. Congress gets a say. So the largess will need to be sprin
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Where do they manufacture the aircraft, the boats, the missiles, the guns, the tanks, the helmets, the boots, the armour?
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I'm routinely stunned that even the military can't build their own stuff at this level.
I'm sure they could, but the drones would be no better than DJI's, and would cost $50,000 a pop.
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Definitely no incidents worth mentioning, haha. Certainly the drones have not attained sentience. Definitely they have not breached containment. No drones are currently posting disinformation on the Internet, why would you ask such a silly question? Besides, are drones really that bad? Has a drone ever hurt you or a loved one? Sounds to me like drones might be more trustworthy than humans, haha!
Look, all I'm saying is, give drones a chance.
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+1 funny, best post of the year
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...Definitely they have not breached containment. No drones are currently posting disinformation on the Internet...
You're confusing drones with droogs. It's the droogies that are posting disinformation on the internet, not the drones.
Easy mistake to make.
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Huh? (Score:3)
What is the department of the interior hiding? Are they worried about China getting pictures of trees and grasslands? I'm pretty sure that if someone wanted a picture of what some remote mountain valley looks like, they could just pull it up on of the multiple services that provides satellite photos, such as Google maps. What information does the DoI have that needs to be kept secret? And, what the hell for?
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They're worried about script kiddies crashing military drones into office buildings, malls, churches, and schools.
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I think this comes under the term "hobgobblin", they are out there, scaring the panties off the bureaucrats whose pol bosses will be quaking with fear lest "something" go wrong and they be held accountable. Better to chase down the hobgobblin and kill it before it can do any harm...to the pols.
Re: Kobe's helo brought down by rogue DOI drone (Score:1)
Fascinating theory, Comrade Wang. How's the weather in Beijing today?
"Chinese Components" (Score:2)
Good job chasing most of the chip fab capacity out of the US and then worrying about it after the cows have left the barn.
I hope the PC's they're typing their security memos on don't contain Chinese Components.
Re: "Chinese Components" (Score:1)
Hmmmmm..... Maybe offshoring our country's entire industrial base to our biggest geopolitical rival was a bad idea... Who would've thought??
Translation (Score:2)
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