An American hacker has found a way to hijack consumer drones for personal use and remotely control their flights. As AlJazeera reports, Samy Kamkar [2] exposed security holes in the AR.Drone made by Parrot, one of the leading manufacturers of commercial drones.
I've released SkyJack, a RasPi drone that seeks out and hacks drones, turns them into zombie drones that you control. http://t.co/o3VVtKpLZp [3]
— Samy Kamkar (@samykamkar) December 3, 2013 [4]
With tens of thousands of drones expected in US airspace in the next few years (including Amazon PrimeAir drones), Kamkar's announcement raises considerable concerns of what could be possible.
The video below shows Kamkar explaining how, using a Parrot drone, a $35 Raspberry Pi computer, a WiFi transmitter, and some technical expertise, he managed to 'skyjack' the drone.
As Al Jazeera notes, commentary on this 'hack' is mixed with some expressing hope that it will encourage greater security developments and others eschewing his efforts as "toy"-based and not a problem for commercial drones... Time will tell of course...
Didn't they say the same about the NSA website before it was hacked? Seems to us like the consequences here are a little larger...