by Eric Lieberman
People worried about their safety and privacy now have a new weapon for disabling drones — a small hardware module that can hijack the flying device.
The piece of technology, called Icarus, can overtake the DSMx, the remote control system in many drones as well as other vehicles like planes, helicopters, cars, and boats, according to Ars Technica.
The tech allows the hacker to assume operational control, including steering, accelerating, and braking, which can ultimately lead to a purposeful crash.
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It was developed by Jonathan Andersson, a security researcher with 20 years of experience in software development and electronic design.
Also called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones have experienced a huge upsurge in the past year. Roughly 300,000 owners registered their aircraft in just the first 30 days of the government enrollment process, according to a January press release from the Federal Aviation Administration.
While there are several societal benefits — like rapid burrito delivery and emergency response initiatives — not everyone is happy with the prospect of more UAVs. (RELATED: The FAA Is Fining A Man $55,000 For Flying His Drone)
A 65-year-old woman in rural Virginia recently showed off her marksman skills by shooting down a drone flying over her property.
“I go on minding my business, working on my .410 shotgun and the next thing I know I hear ‘bzzzzz,’” Jennifer Youngman told Ars Technica. “This thing is going down through the field, and they’re buzzing like you would scaring the cows.”
“I don’t know if they lost command or if they didn’t have good command, but the wind had picked up. It came over my airspace, 25 or 30 feet above my trees, and hovered for a second. I blasted it to smithereens,” she said.
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