Cyberwarfare? New System Protects Drones from Hackers

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Scientists are developing cybersecurity systems to protect military drones from being hacked. (Image credit: Mission Secure)

Military drones are often used to store sensitive data, ranging from troop movements to strategic operations. While this may make them vulnerable to enemy interference, a new system is aiming to protect these unmanned aerial vehicles from cyberattacks.

Researchers at the University of Virginia and the Georgia Institute of Technology developed the system and tested it in a series of live, in-flight cyberattack scenarios. As military and commercial drone use continues to grow, protecting against such attacks will become a priority, the scientists said.

When installed on a drone, the System-Aware Secure Sentinel system detects "illogical behaviors" compared to those expected of the vehicle, said project leader Barry Horowitz, a systems and information engineer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. [Rise of the Drones: Photos of Unmanned Aircraft]

"Detections can serve to initiate automated recovery actions and to alert operators of the attack," Horowitz said in a statement.

Closeup of the MSI Secure Sentinel System (Image credit: (c) Mission SEcure)

In the demonstration, the researchers simulated various threats, including cyberattacks launched from enemies on the ground, attacks from military insiders and interference with supply chains. The "attacks" took place over the course of five days, and focused on interference in four different areas: GPS data, location data, information about imagery, and onboard surveillance/control of payloads.

"The inflight testing gauged the effectiveness of the countermeasure technology in hardening the unmanned system's cyber agility and resiliency under attack conditions," the researchers said.

In each scenario, the cybersecurity system was able to rapidly detect cyberattacks, notify the team and correct the system's performance, the researchers said.

The research center that developed the technology is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. The University of Virginia recently licensed the technology to the software company Mission Secure Inc., which is working to commercialize it for the military, intelligence and civil sectors.

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Tanya Lewis
Tanya Lewis
Staff Writer
Tanya was a staff writer for Live Science from 2013 to 2015, covering a wide array of topics, ranging from neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is, you can visit her website.