Dissertation Survey Request!

[Syystole]

I am a university student working on a report based on Drone (UAV) Vulnerabilities and would greatly appreciate it if you would fill out this questionnaire for me as it would be great to get the opinions of drone owners to see the awareness.

Here it is, Thank you!
Drone Cybersecurity Awareness Survey

 

[Meta4]

I am a university student working on a report based on Drone (UAV) Vulnerabilities and would greatly appreciate it if you would fill out this questionnaire for me as it would be great to get the opinions of drone owners to see the awareness.

I've completed your survey and have a question for you

7. Are you aware of drones’ being hacked and controlled to complete illegal tasks without the owner’s consent?​

I'm aware of discussion about the (extremely remote) possibility but have not heard of it ever happening beyond experimenters demonstrations.
Are you aware of any actual hijacking incidents and what illegal tasks could a hijacked drone be used for?
Why wouldn't a person intent on such activity just buy their own drone?
It would be so much simpler.

 

[Syystole]

I've completed your survey and have a question for you

7. Are you aware of drones’ being hacked and controlled to complete illegal tasks without the owner’s consent?​

I'm aware of discussion about the (extremely remote) possibility but have not heard of it ever happening beyond experimenters demonstrations.
Are you aware of any actual hijacking incidents and what illegal tasks could a hijacked drone be used for?
Why wouldn't a person intent on such activity just buy their own drone?
It would be so much simpler.

I've read about military drones used for surveillance being hijacked by Iranian soldiers and then fed GPS co-ordinates to their location for theft.

There's a popular software known as "Skyjack" which was originally designed in hijacking Amazon Drones to steal their packages,

But, yes, most hijacking incidents are from demonstrations in drone conventions or from users in a testing environment, but it is still a possibility that it will happen in the real world.

Thanks for completing the survey!

 

[Meta4]

but it is still a possibility that it will happen in the real world.

For it to happen to recreational flyers in the real world, the intending drone hijacker would have to be equipped appropriately and lie in waiting for his unsuspecting prey.
Unless he knows where and when his victim will be flying, he will get bored waiting, and waiting ......and waiting
Just to steal a fairly cheap drone that he already has a controller for.

I can imagine drone hijacking in a military situation but it's beyond far-fetched for private flyers and our cheap non-threatening drones.
I can't see it happening.

 

[Syystole]

For it to happen to recreational flyers in the real world, the intending drone hijacker would have to be equipped appropriately and lie in waiting for his unsuspecting prey.
Unless he knows where and when his victim will be flying, he will get bored waiting, and waiting ......and waiting
Just to steal a fairly cheap drone that he already has a controller for.

I can imagine drone hijacking in a military situation but it's beyond far-fetched for private flyers and our cheap non-threatening drones.
I can't see it happening.

I guess it depends who the target is, my university owns a Yuneec Typhoon H which is over £1000, I have a few friends who also use expensive drones for commercial/business use so I can see the payoff from all the waiting and planning

It's not just for theft though, attackers can just gain control of a drone and crash / sink it for fun they can use it as a weapon of destruction (drone vs vehicle), attack other bystanders or animals etc...

 

[Meta4]

I guess it depends who the target is, my university owns a Yuneec Typhoon H which is over £1000, I have a few friends who also use expensive drones for commercial/business use so I can see the payoff from all the waiting and planning
It's not just for theft though, attackers can just gain control of a drone and crash / sink it for fun they can use it as a weapon of destruction (drone vs vehicle), attack other bystanders or animals etc...

In your dissertation (if you're serious) you need to consider how improbable those scenarios really are.
Do you have 1st hand experience of drone flying?
There's a huge difference between something being hypothetically possible and the likelihood of it happening.
There may be good reasons that none of those scenarios have actually happened.
I'd suggest they are so improbably that they should not be taken seriously.

Really, if someone is deranged enough to want to go to the trouble of hijacking a drone being flown by someone else to "use it as a weapon" why wouldn't they simply go out and buy one or steal one.
Similarly, the ideaof drone hijacking to acquire expensive commercial drones is laughable.
The drone hijack concept just doesn't stand up to rational thought.

 

[Syystole]

In your dissertation (if you're serious) you need to consider how improbable those scenarios really are.
Do you have 1st hand experience of drone flying?
There's a huge difference between something being hypothetically possible and the likelihood of it happening.
There may be good reasons that none of those scenarios have actually happened.
I'd suggest they are so improbably that they should not be taken seriously.

Really, if someone is deranged enough to want to go to the trouble of hijacking a drone being flown by someone else to "use it as a weapon" why wouldn't they simply go out and buy one or steal one.
Similarly, the ideaof drone hijacking to acquire expensive commercial drones is laughable.
The drone hijack concept just doesn't stand up to rational thought.

My study is on the vulnerabilities on drones and how it is exploited, not why, not by who, but how. I am not researching criminal behaviour or have any knowledge about criminology.

And yes I do have first hand experience of drone flying

 

[Meta4]

My study is on the vulnerabilities on drones and how it is exploited

How it is exploited?
You'll have to come up with some actual incidents then.
I'd be most interested to see them because I think drone hijacking is right up there with werewolves and zombies.
Good luck

 

[Syystole]

How it is exploited?
You'll have to come up with some actual incidents then.
I'd be most interested to see them because I think drone hijacking is right up there with werewolves and zombies.
Good luck

I'm talking about Skyjacking to highjack a drone whilst it is airborne, GPS Spoofing to feed gps co-ordinates to a location other than what the original pilot used, video feed monitoring, breaking geofencing borders to allow drones to be used in airports or in prisons where friends of inmates fly weapons to give them an advantage inside.

Here are some sources I have used:

https://www.researchgate.net/public...nalysis_and_exemplary_attack_to_track_persons

Drone causes Gatwick Airport disruption

Drone near-miss 'put 130 lives at risk'

Prison drones drug smuggling gang jailed

Drug-laden drone crashes in Mexico

 

[Meta4]

I'm talking about Skyjacking to highjack a drone whilst it is airborne, GPS Spoofing to feed gps co-ordinates to a location other than what the original pilot used, video feed monitoring, breaking geofencing borders to allow drones to be used in airports or in prisons where friends of inmates fly weapons to give them an advantage inside.

Sorry ... I thought you were talking about the presumed threat of nefarious persons stealing drones in flight (it seemed so from your previous comments).
But the cases you cite are simply people flying their own drones illegally.
There's a huge difference.

Keep looking and see if you can come up with an actual case.
I've given you some good ideas to look into for your dissertation.
You are looking into a hypothetical threat that isn't happening, hasn't happened and is extremely unlikely to happen.
You need to consider why, otherwise you may as well be researching the threat of invasion by space aliens.