• Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
MUST READ

Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

 | 

Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

 | 

Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

 | 

Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

 | 

U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

 | 

Qantas confirms customer data breach amid Scattered Spider attacks

 | 

CVE-2025-6554 is the fourth Chrome zero-day patched by Google in 2025

 | 

U.S. CISA adds TeleMessage TM SGNL flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

A sophisticated cyberattack hit the International Criminal Court

 | 

Esse Health data breach impacted 263,000 individuals

 | 

Europol dismantles €460M crypto scam targeting 5,000 victims worldwide

 | 

CISA and U.S. Agencies warn of ongoing Iranian cyber threats to critical infrastructure

 | 

U.S. CISA adds Citrix NetScaler flaw to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog

 | 

Canada bans Hikvision over national security concerns

 | 

Denmark moves to protect personal identity from deepfakes with new copyright law

 | 

Ahold Delhaize data breach affected over 2.2 Million individuals

 | 

Facebook wants access to your camera roll for AI photo edits

 | 

SECURITY AFFAIRS MALWARE NEWSLETTER ROUND 51

 | 

Security Affairs newsletter Round 530 by Pierluigi Paganini – INTERNATIONAL EDITION

 | 

The FBI warns that Scattered Spider is now targeting the airline sector

 | 
  • Home
  • Cyber Crime
  • Cyber warfare
  • APT
  • Data Breach
  • Deep Web
  • Digital ID
  • Hacking
  • Hacktivism
  • Intelligence
  • Internet of Things
  • Laws and regulations
  • Malware
  • Mobile
  • Reports
  • Security
  • Social Networks
  • Terrorism
  • ICS-SCADA
  • POLICIES
  • Contact me
  • Home
  • Intelligence
  • Security
  • Drones vulnerable to hijacking, concerns on security and privacy

Drones vulnerable to hijacking, concerns on security and privacy

Pierluigi Paganini July 02, 2012

Last week a saw a satellite image taken by Google Earth related to a mysterious vehicle, apparently an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), parked at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.

“Skunk Works” LM’s Advanced Development Program Facility is where some of the most futuristic and secret projects are developed. The image was dated 2011, Dec. 4, but it has been published only last week in a blog post by George Kaplan, an “open source” intelligence analyst.

Lockheed firm has already worked on the design of drone for reconnaissance and surveillance purposes, the dimensions calculable from the image suggest that the photographed aircraft match the one ones for wingspan of Lockheed’s secretive RQ-170 Sentinel, also a Skunk Works design.

The secret drone was sighted for the first time in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Air Field in 2007, later the Air Force confessed to use it for surveillance operations.

On December 4th, similar drone was captured by Iranian forces near the Iran-Afghanistan border. The event represented for the Iran an opportunity to make propaganda on its technological capabilities, sustaining the drone was hijacked with a sophisticated cyber attack.

Once captured the vehicle, the Iranian experts have had the opportunity to study the technological jewel, its maintenance logs indicated that it, or at least parts of it, had been sent back to Palmdale from Afghanistan for maintenance.

Obviously the photo generated great interest and many experts have expressed different opinions, some argue that it is a new project that will compete for a government supply with products developed by companies such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, other analysts sustain that a new secret project could not be exposed in a parking area in this way.

The usage of drones has become increasingly common, for surveillance purposes but also to conduct attacks, it represents an indispensable military option that could preserve human lives in dangerous operations.

Drone aircrafts are able to monitor large territories, spy on and attack terrorists groups with no human intervention.  We registered several operations in which these powerful weapons have been used, In Pakistan and Yemen for example against al Qaeda exponents, and also in Somalia where President Obama secretly authorized two drone strikes and two commando raids against terrorists.

Don’t forget the massive usage in Iranian region for surveillance purpose with the intent of collect any kind of information on the evolution of Iranian nuclear program.

But the use of these deadly vehicles raises several thorny issues:

  • Devices such as UAVs are used in military reprisals conducted secretly, its legality is much debated. U.S. military has launched several lethal attacks on terrorist targets all over the world, but according specialists on government secrecy issues, the congressional oversight of these operations appears to be cursory and insufficient. The specialist  Steven Aftergood declared :

“It is Congress‘ responsibility to declare war under the Constitution, but instead it appears to have adopted a largely passive role while the executive takes the initiative in war fighting.”

  • Another sensible problem is the real security level of these vehicles. They are based on high technological components, and we know that nothing is totally secure. In internet are circulating news regarding the vulnerabilities of US drones that seems to be exploitable allowing to hackers to take control of the vehicle. Recently a team of researchers of the University of Texas at Austin, has led a successful attack accepting the challenge of the Department of Homeland Security.  The event is really dangerous, if the enemies takes control of the drone they could use it as weapon. The spoofing is not the only attacks that can hit a GPS drone, we have already spoken of GPS signal jamming. Jamming GPS signal could for example force it into an automatic landing mode the aircraft. Spoofing a GPS receiver on a UAV is possible to manipulate navigation computers providing fake information. The Professor Todd Humphreys, declared to Fox News

“In 5 or 10 years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace,”“Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”

  • Let’s consider that the use of drone could be extended for surveillance of territory made by law enforcement in several countries, for this reason it must be defined new rules to allow government and commercial use of UAVs. In US Congress ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to define the rules within 2015. Also private companies such has FedEx announced that they intend to use drone for their activities, with obvious impact on privacy and security.
  • Last concern about the use of drones is the real capacity of Western industry in protecting its projects and technological solutions. Foreign governments, China first, are specialized in cyber espionage and daily we read news on the violation of intellectual property. Cyber attacks, network exploit, targeted malware are all methods to steal industrial secrets on special project such as the drone’s one.

The deep knowledge of these secrets related to the technology used in the design of drones raises security concerns, on our head could fly our drones that could be used to attacks our territories … and it’s not science fiction.

Pierluigi Paganini

References

http://theaviationist.com/2012/06/15/unknown-uav/

http://theaviationist.com/2011/12/19/simple-solution/

 

 


facebook linkedin twitter

Al-Qaeda China cyber espionage Drone Drones GPS Jamming GPS malware privacy RQ-170 security Spoofing

you might also like

Pierluigi Paganini July 02, 2025
Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager
Read more
Pierluigi Paganini July 02, 2025
U.S. CISA adds TeleMessage TM SGNL flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
Read more

leave a comment

newsletter

Subscribe to my email list and stay
up-to-date!

    recent articles

    Cybercriminals Target Brazil: 248,725 Exposed in CIEE One Data Breach

    Data Breach / July 03, 2025

    Europol shuts down Archetyp Market, longest-running dark web drug marketplace

    Cyber Crime / July 03, 2025

    Kelly Benefits data breach has impacted 550,000 people, and the situation continues to worsen as the investigation progresses

    Uncategorized / July 03, 2025

    Cisco removed the backdoor account from its Unified Communications Manager

    Security / July 02, 2025

    U.S. Sanctions Russia's Aeza Group for aiding crooks with bulletproof hosting

    Cyber Crime / July 02, 2025

    To contact me write an email to:

    Pierluigi Paganini :
    pierluigi.paganini@securityaffairs.co

    LEARN MORE

    QUICK LINKS

    • Home
    • Cyber Crime
    • Cyber warfare
    • APT
    • Data Breach
    • Deep Web
    • Digital ID
    • Hacking
    • Hacktivism
    • Intelligence
    • Internet of Things
    • Laws and regulations
    • Malware
    • Mobile
    • Reports
    • Security
    • Social Networks
    • Terrorism
    • ICS-SCADA
    • POLICIES
    • Contact me

    Copyright@securityaffairs 2024

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
    Cookie SettingsAccept All
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities...
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
    Non-necessary
    Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
    SAVE & ACCEPT