Has the Phantom 4 Pro been hacked?

borgroves · May 30, 2017

My company has grounded DJI products because they have information they have been hacked by the Chinese and can be used to spy on our Power Plants and send GPS coordinates and video to "bad people". I can't Imagine how, as these are not internet connected devices. Sure, the controller is usually connected to a tablet/phone that is, but we would be talking about hacking the app or the phone, not the Drone.
Anyone who's heard anything about this please help me out! I need some talking points to get my birds back up!

FLYBOYJ · May 30, 2017

Chinese hacking their own company? Really? Spy on our power plants? A well placed satellite could get them as much information as any drone. I find this very hard to believe.

microlinux · May 30, 2017

Er, what? They are hoping someone randomly flies by a power plant that they are interested in and gets video of said power plant that is useful? It's not like the location of power plants is classified . . . that seems like an extremely roundabout way of getting information they almost surely already have.

STGill · May 30, 2017

That doesn't make much sense, for the reasons previously mentioned. Power plants are usually no-fly zones already, so they are listed on maps, including sectionals and flight apps. And there's no connection between the GPS signal and the images you shoot, so they'd have to hack your SD card and/or the transmission signal from the drone to the rc. I suppose it could be done if someone was close to you (a la public wi-fi hacking), so just keep an eye out for people with laptops hiding in bushes when you fly, for hacking and/or perv concerns.

Capo · May 30, 2017

Well, there are many potential data leaks, such as your cache files or your uploaded flight logs, as well as embedded information on photos such as .exif. The app or the drone don't need to be hacked for these. Others are right though. This information is available elsewhere so I doubt the motive to do this. How much of these would be of actual power plants and such? This sounds like fake news to me.

borgroves · May 30, 2017

I pointed out that those "stacks" on the sectionals ARE our Power Plants. Pilots use them for Visual Reference Points. I'm pretty sure their "source" is a potential vendor who wants to do our Drone work...they use those Aeryon SkyRanger drones. $75,000 a pop for a drone marginally better equipped than a P4P. They did a demo for us one morning. They didn't check B4UFly, the Operator had went to school on it, but otherwise had zero drone experience. It's all iPad based, no controller. iPad cables to big honking roof mounted boxes...I was not impressed,,,but I don't write the checks either....

borgroves · May 30, 2017

They are selling the service, not the drones

sparky1111 · May 30, 2017

Lies lies and more lies. They only need to fly a person out to walk around with a smart phone and app and job done in a week.
Rubbish.

John Locke · May 30, 2017

This is stupid. DJI created the no fly zone database for U.S.power plants, they already know where they are, and satellites can let them see whatever they want.

Sunshine Ben · May 30, 2017

Funny in a way. Wish you luck in dealing with the issue. Seems a little backward thinking on people that are making decision for the company.

KevMo Photog · May 30, 2017

LOL! DJI just wants to keep selling us drones man! I there were any truth to this, it could possibly really hurt them though.

uke · Jun 2, 2017

STGill said:
... And there's no connection between the GPS signal and the images you shoot, so they'd have to hack your SD card and/or the transmission signal from the drone to the rc.

Actually, there is a connection. The images are geocoded. But the hackers would still have to be able to read the SD card in any case.

STGill · Jun 2, 2017

uke said:
Actually, there is a connection. The images are geocoded. But the hackers would still have to be able to read the SD card in any case.

Yeah, I forgot about that. I was thinking more along the lines that someone thinks you could hack a GPS signal to control the camera.

furthertofly · Jun 3, 2017

I am continually amazed at the number of people who will believe any wild story without pausing to think about it. Critical thinking is a fading art and we are in serious trouble.

GaryMortimer · Jun 3, 2017

I don't think they have been hacked, you have agreed when you sign up for the app for DJI to store your data in China. The streaming video and audio from your phone is sent over there I understand. Not a hack, an agreed action. What DJI sends home is mentioned in here.

Method007 · Jun 3, 2017

I'm blown away someone believed this enough to repeat it.

Sammynels · Jun 3, 2017

Tool.

dangerd · Jun 3, 2017

furthertofly said:
I am continually amazed at the number of people who will believe any wild story without pausing to think about it. Critical thinking is a fading art and we are in serious trouble.

Yes this.

Warnica · Jun 4, 2017

I think Google Earth would be easier to use.
OR
I received a map from the FAA about all military bases NOT to fly over.
Wouldn't be too many years ago that would have been a classified document

sar104 · Jun 4, 2017

borgroves said:
My company has grounded DJI products because they have information they have been hacked by the Chinese and can be used to spy on our Power Plants and send GPS coordinates and video to "bad people". I can't Imagine how, as these are not internet connected devices. Sure, the controller is usually connected to a tablet/phone that is, but we would be talking about hacking the app or the phone, not the Drone.
Anyone who's heard anything about this please help me out! I need some talking points to get my birds back up!

A number of US Government agencies have banned the use of DJI products due to the transmission of flight data to DJI servers by the GO app. That's not particularly surprising even if the transmitted data would not be considered particularly sensitive in most situations. Anyway, ours are also currently grounded for the same reason and we are working with DJI to address the problem. There is currently an initiative underway by DJI's US division to release an enterprise version of the apps that avoids this issue.