Hacker Reveals $40 Method to Steal Police Drones

Black Hat Asia IBM security guy Nils Rodday says thieves can hijack expensive professional drones used widely across the law enforcement, emergency, and private sectors thanks to absent encryption in on-board chips.

Rodday says the €25,000 (US$28,463, £19,816, AU$37,048) quadcopters can be hijacked with less than $40 of hardware, and some basic knowledge of radio communications.

With that in hand attackers can commandeer radio links to the drones from up to two kilometres away, and block operators from reconnecting to the craft.

The drone is often used by emergency services across Europe, but the exposure could be much worse; the targeted Xbee chip is common in drones everywhere and Rodday says it is likely many more aircraft are open to compromise.

Read More: The Register

Featured Image – The Drone Flow, courtesy of The Register.