Avast Blog_ViewPoints: Sky-high concerns: Understanding the security threat posed by

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They are susceptible to all the cyber threats that face the Internet of Things, and can be hijacked for unintended purposes

Drones, the popular name for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are a new toy for hobbyists, a tool for commerce, and a multi-purpose device for the military.

At one end of the scale they are just a few feet in diameter and able to carry payloads like a camera or small Raspberry Pi computer; at the other end they have a wingspan of 20 meters and can carry 500-pound laser-guided bombs or Hellfire missiles.

In most cases, they are ultimately free-ranging IoT devices, housed in a flying machine smaller than a lawnmower, with wireless communications. As wireless IoT devices, they are susceptible to all the cyber threats that face the Internet of Things, and can be hijacked for unintended purposes.

Drones: hobby, commercial and military

When hobby drones first appeared, they were little more than a toy for the affluent or a hobby for the enthusiast. But the market has expanded, the technology has improved with greater maneuverability and built-in cameras – and the price has dropped. It is a booming market. The FAA predicts there will be between 1.3 million and 1.7 million hobby drones in the U.S. by 2023.

The fastest-growing market, although smaller than the hobby market, is for commercial drones, which many companies are experimenting with. The best-known examples include carrying cargo for deliveries which has been explored by Amazon and Domino’s Pizza. This application has been delayed by regulations, since drones are seen by many as a danger and a noise nuisance; but those regulations may be relaxed over the next few years. A U.S. Department of Transportation proposal earlier this year would allow drones to be flown over people and at night without needing special permissions or waivers, which could open up drone delivery services in the future.

There are fewer military drones, but this is also an expanding market. Military drones allow an attacker to reach almost any target in any location without risk to personnel. Their use cases are expanding. According to Steve Durbin, the managing director at the Information Security Forum, drone technology is being developed that could expand military use from straightforward weapons into sophisticated espionage tools. Various third-party organizations are developing drones that can tap or interfere with communications systems, intercept data and self-destruct if captured. Weapons-carrying military drones are manufactured by the U.S., Israel, China, Russia, and Iran, among other countries.

Drones also have lesser known but more specific applications that are neither hobby, commercial nor military. Camera-mounted drones can be used to monitor infrastructure, hard to reach parts of ancient monuments, wildfires or livestock, while specialized sensors can be used for geological surveying.

All these categories of drone carry security risk. Only the military drone can be considered relatively secure – the rest are subject to hijacking and misuse for bad purposes like any other IoT device. Those bad purposes include threats to our privacy, to cybersecurity, and even to our physical safety.
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