DEC 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 12

what easy to bypass those restrictions
some say.
“There’s YouTube videos that
could walk your grandparents
through how to update the software
on one of these drones to be
non-detectable and to do a whole
lot of other things—get rid of elevation
ceilings, all kinds of stuff,”
a government contractor who has
helped collect data for federal
authorities said.
“If you were to go buy a DJI
drone at the store, it wouldn’t fly
over airports or specific cities
because of a specific no-fly zone.
So, anything that we see in DC that
is a DJI-manufactured product has
been hacked or manipulated to
enable flight in these zones.”
Malicious actors might be able
to take advantage of being able to
easily bypass restrictions.
The contractor compared the
potential threat as that of “an
eight-year-old kid or an unsuspecting
adult who got a DJI for
Christmas and is unwittingly
collecting data for somebody who
could become a serious trea.”
The contractor warned that a
sophisticated user might be able
to “use a drone for industrial
espionage or cyber-attacks.” Or it
could be something as simple as
someone using such a drone for
access to wireless info in a home.
“One could land a drone on your
house and start capturing all the
wireless information that’s being
broadcast out of your home,” the
contractor said.
“Similarly, one could do that on
a federal building, a power grid
or other critical infrastructure.
And the reality is, people on the
tech side always said, ‘look, at any
point in time the Chinese can take
control of a DJI that’s flying in the
air.”
Politico noted that the federal
government has accused DJI of
having ties to the Chinese government,
while public records indicate
Beijing-backed individuals
are among investors in the company.
Those links were considered
when the Pentagon decided to
blacklist the drones.
Meanwhile Burrell, DJI’s communications
manager denies the
company has any ties to the Chinese
government.
“We are a private company. We
don’t take any money from the
Chinese government,” she said.
She also said the company is
committed to following US laws
and regulations, claiming the
company is “passionate about
flight safety.”
According to the Federal Aviation
Administration, there are
over 870,000 drones currently
registered in the United States, an
amount that is three times that of
piloted aircraft.
The FAA further estimates that
by 2024, there will be some 2.3
million “unmanned aerial systems”—1.5
million recreational
drones and model aircraft and
800,000 commercial drones—registered
to fly in the U.S.
With the increase in drones has
come an accompanying increase
in drones being flown in restricted
areas, including violating temporary
flight restrictions or TFRs that
are designed to protect the president.
Since 2018, the Secret Service
has encountered “hundreds of
drones” violating TFRs, according
to Samantha Vinograd, acting
assistant secretary of Homeland
Security testifying before the Senate
Homeland Security and Government
Affairs Committee.
In her testimony, she also
warned that commercially available
drones can “be used by hostile
foreign intelligence agencies
or criminals to collect intelligence
and enable espionage, steal sensitive
technology and intellectual
property, and conduct cyber-attacks
against wireless devices or
networks.”
“The potential implications can
be significant for sensitive U.S.
facilities, the defense industrial
base, technology firms, and others,”
she added.
Meanwhile in Washington, D.C.,
there have been a reported 100
or more incursions in the city’s
airspace over a 45-day period,
however sources speaking to
Politico asked that specific numbers,
locations, and frequency of
the incursions not be reported for
security reasons.
For example this past summer,
one such incursion resulted in
flights into and out of DC’s Ronald
Reagan Washington National
Airport being halted.
“There are a lot more drones flying
in our airspace than you would
expect,” the contractor said.
“You’ll see hundreds of them
over that same time period, but
the biggest difference is obviously
the national capital region is
the most secure air space in the
world,” they continued.
The so-called Special Flight
Rules Area around the nation’s
capital consists of a 55-mile ring
that starts at Reagan National. Any
user requesting to fly inside the
area must obtain a waiver from
the FAA.
The agency has implemented a
number of additional steps to detect
drones to ensure they do not
interfere with commercial aircraft
or otherwise pose safety hazards,
Politico wrote.,
For example, the agency adopted
a “remote identification rule”
lasts year that requires drones be
identifiable with a form of “digital
license plate,” designed to assist
law enforcement agencies “find
the control station when a drone
appears to be flying in an unsafe
manner or where it is not allowed
to fly,” the FAA said.
The FAA, in addressing incursions
above sensitive federal
buildings, said while the agency
is responsible for managing that
restricted airspace, it is the Secret
Service that is charged with
defending it.
“Due to the need to maintain operational
security, the U.S. Secret
Service does not comment on the
means, methods or resources used
to conduct our protective operations,”
a Secret Service spokesperson
told Politico.
Congress has become increasingly
concerned about the use of
drones and the potential threat to
national security.
In February, Rubio introduced a
bill to add DJI to a Federal Communications
Commission list designating
the company as a national
security threat.
That would restrict the company’s
drones’ ability to link to U.S.
telecommunications systems.
The bill has gone nowhere in
Congress, likely because Senate
Democrats are more concerned
about things such as codifying gay
marriage.
Rubio proposed the measure
after a report that DJI was attempting
to conceal its funding by
the Chinese government. Rubio, in
partnership with some Democrats
has likewise proposed legislation
to prohibit U.S. government entities
from using federal funds to
purchase Chinese-made drones.
That legislation has also hit a
brick wall.
Politico wrote that Democrat
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich), chairman
of the Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee
helped author a bipartisan
bill in July that would expand the
authority of the Departments of
Homeland Security and Justice, as
well as state and local law enforcement
authorities, to detect
and counter drones which may
present a national security threat.
That bill would also create a
database of “security-related” incidents
involving unmanned aerial
systems within the U.S.
Some however worry that a
nationwide drone tracking system
might present First Amendment
issues. For example, the American
Civil Liberties Union, which
was absent as COVID restrictions
that violated a number of constitutional
amendments went unchallenged
by the group, claims
the proposal violates the right to
privacy, among other rights.
The group argues that “such a
system threatens to erase any possibility
of anonymous operation of
drones so that, for example, an activist
wishing to record corporate
malfeasance or police actions at
a protest [always after the police,
the ACLU] might be targeted after
the fact, or chilled before it.”
However, with the federal government’s
current authorities to
counter drones set to soon expire,
the Biden administration and other
federal authorities are urging Congress
to act.
“We have located hundreds
of drones that have been acting
in violation of federal law each
time, and as the threat continues
to grow, we’re investigating even
as we speak several incidents,
even within the U.S., of attempts
to weaponize drones with homemade
[improvised explosive devices],”
FBI Director Christopher Wray
told Peters’ committee on Nov. 17.
“That is the future that is here
now, and this authority desperately
needs to be reauthorized.”
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