Hacked off

Drone alert

A BLACK package suspended in mid-air under a hovering drone is picked up by the CCTV cameras surrounding Wandsworth prison in south London one evening earlier this year. As it moves closer to one of the windows, a prisoner leans out to snare the delivery with a stick and pull it inside. Prison officers later recover the package and find it is stuffed with drugs and mobile phones.

Such events are becoming increasingly common, not just in the use of drones to deliver contraband but in all sorts of other nefarious activities, from paparazzi spying on celebrities to burglars casing properties. More worrying still are reports of drones being flown near aircraft. Security experts fret about ways terrorists could use drones to drop bombs or biological weapons.

What is needed, many reckon, are drone countermeasures. These already exist for military drones—including shooting them down with lasers. But that is a dangerous way to deal with small consumer drones flying in public areas. So, other answers are being sought in a challenge organised by MITRE, an American non-profit organisation that runs R&D…Continue reading
Source: Economist