Senators Alarmed Over Potential Chinese Drone Spy Threat (politico.com) 64
Hundreds of Chinese-manufactured drones have been detected in restricted airspace over Washington, D.C., in recent months, a trend that national security agencies fear could become a new means for foreign espionage. From a report: The recreational drones made by Chinese company DJI, which are designed with "geofencing" restrictions to keep them out of sensitive locations, are being manipulated by users with simple workarounds to fly over no-go zones around the nation's capital.
Federal officials and drone industry experts have delivered classified briefings to the Senate Homeland Security, Commerce and Intelligence committees on the development, three people privy to the meetings said. A spokesperson for the Intelligence Committee -- which has been kept closely apprised of the counterintelligence risks -- declined to comment on the briefings. The other two committees did not respond. This story is based on interviews with seven government officials, lawmakers, congressional staffers and contractors. They were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about private and sometimes classified discussions involving government officials.
Federal officials and drone industry experts have delivered classified briefings to the Senate Homeland Security, Commerce and Intelligence committees on the development, three people privy to the meetings said. A spokesperson for the Intelligence Committee -- which has been kept closely apprised of the counterintelligence risks -- declined to comment on the briefings. The other two committees did not respond. This story is based on interviews with seven government officials, lawmakers, congressional staffers and contractors. They were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about private and sometimes classified discussions involving government officials.
overblown (Score:5, Insightful)
On top of that, these aren't being flown in DC by chinese nationals, but by mostly non-chinese tourists and maybe some american locals. They store their recordings on local flash memory and don't broadcast it back to china.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
They're trying to fearmonger simply because these things are made in china
More likely they are just hypocrites [theintercept.com] and pathological liars.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Re:overblown (Score:4, Informative)
Supposedly DJI has been vetted now by the US government and is safe to use. At my old job we had special laptops used only for updating DJI software and running their simulations. They were only allowed on the guest wifi and not the corporate network.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but there's something even scarier: Every day hundreds of Chinese nationals go into highly restricted airspace carrying high-resolution cameras, and any one of them could be spying. We need to stop this grave threat to national security right now: No more air travel by Chinese people with cellphones.
Somehow that just doesn't sound as good when you write it down.
Re: overblown (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Aren't most drones manufactured in China, like like most of our other electronic gizmos?
Anyhow, besides this, exactly what sort of deep, dark secrets do you think anyone can extract by flying hundreds of feet above public buildings? Are people exchanging secret documents in extra large, bold fonts on the roof? Because maybe they should stop that.
I'm the first person to acknowledge that China is a potential threat to our national security as well as *industrial* security. China has demonstrated this many
Re: (Score:3)
I'm the first person to acknowledge that China is a potential threat to our national security as well as *industrial* security. China has demonstrated this many times over the last decade or so. But this sounds ridiculously overblown.
I still remember when we were at war with Oceana, not Eastasia.
Re: (Score:3)
Eurasia has always been at war with Eastasia.
Re: overblown (Score:2)
Re: overblown (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
I'm the first person to acknowledge that China is a potential threat to our national security as well as *industrial* security.
If that were true why do so many American corporations have such extensive holdings in China?
The American government needs enemies, or eventually people will start asking why they have to help spend $800 billion every year on military stuff.
It used to be really easy, the Soviet bloc was our enemy, and were huge and powerful so nobody could argue about the need to defend ourselves, but then the Berlin Wall came down and the US government has had to try to find another enemy.
Iraq and Afghanistan worked
Re: overblown (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Even during the cold war the West was notoriously bad for over-estimating the Soviet capabilities, and then spending billions trying to catch up.
Re: (Score:2)
The USSR was arguably just as bad at it - the MiG-25 is basically designed to shoot down the XB-70 of which there were only ever two.
Re: (Score:2)
That's true. A lot of money was wasted on aircraft in general during the period when surface to air missiles were just getting good enough. Then again with ICBMs making long range bombers largely redundant.
Re: (Score:2)
They're trying to fearmonger simply because these things are made in china.
Well, it’s a common courtesy among spying agencies to broadcast the drone location in standard format so the authorities can know exactly what type of drone is flying and where it is. Why if they turned off all radios and navigated by GPS waypoints while storing videos and pics to a memory card, how would the Americans ever know they were there in the first place? Best to broadcast and give them a heads up, it’s the only thing that makes sense. /s
Re: (Score:1)
Wait until someone tells them where the tablet they're using to watch porn is made.
American anti-Chinese propaganda is pretty funny. I can't wait for "Chinese Made Refrigerators Invade American Kitchens!"
Re: (Score:2)
Well, obviously they do. Why else would they need wifi access?
All this IoT nonsense on devices that have no use for it are probably spying on you.
Winnie the Pooh is slowly watching your cheese expire.
Re: (Score:1)
nothing new under the sun, really, but you gotta concede whoever regurgitated this crap that this gem is really something:
which are designed with "geofencing" restrictions to keep them out of sensitive locations, are being manipulated by users with simple workarounds
it doesn't get more pathetic than that, but something social media taught me is that literally everything has an audience in this world ... :D
Re: overblown (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes... And there's a simple solution. Throw the book at some of those who deliberately implemented a workaround to break the geofencing and prosecute them to the fullest extent of criminal law - In order to make an example out of them. Widely publicize the outcome, And people will stop.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They are not trying to cause harm and have not yet had the personal experience to learn otherwise. So you still end up with drones
Well; the government can absolutely prevent them - just like a million other things kids and impulsive people are prevented from doing, And this being a strict liability matter - their "Not trying to cause harm" is irrelevent, They can issue a $50,000 administrative forfeiture the first time it happens, in addition to the jail sentence, and cite the kid's parents as well...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And then some drone that was sitting in a closet somewhere will get flown over it again embarrassing their efforts
By the time that could happen maybe it's shot down and gets 3x the response earlier ones got.
But probably not.. Considering the Geofence feature and the fact they had to circumvent that features which requires some research, there's bout no defense the rogue operator will have once the GPS or firmware tampering is discovered, the "kid" and kid's parents (or other operator) is probably goin
Re: (Score:2)
Which users? (Score:2)
being manipulated by users with simple workarounds to fly over no-go zones
Not modified by the Chinese. Circumvented by US citizens more than likely.
Fear Mongering (Score:2)
Meanwhile... (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, millions of people are walking around, taking selfies and other images using phones that are made in China... and nobody seems to give a damn.
Meanwhile, anyone really wanting to do some information-gathering could be using even a consumer-grade camcorder with a large zoom to get very nice images/video of assets from a great distance and with zero chance of detection.
Sadly, the lingua franca of drone stories is *hysteria* and there's little sign of that changing any time soon.
Unfortunately, politicians, rule-makers, decision-makers and even judges read these hysterical reports and believe this FUD. As a result of this, a recent district court judge issued a judgement that started with the words "Drones are coming, and lots of them".
Yeah, right!
As someone who's been involved in the drone industry for almost two decades I can tell you that drones may be coming but for the forseeable future they'll be few and far between because the economics just don't add up except for a few minimal edge-cases. Sorry, no pizza and coffee deliveries by drones any time soon and as for the much touted "flying taxis" -- well yeah, Hiller proposed these back in the 1950s and we're still waiting.
Sorry, there are too many people who know very little about the reality of drones but who like the sound of their own voices and a media that realizes there's far more money to be made promoting hysteria and FUD than there is in simply reporting the facts.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
obligatory: https://youtu.be/XEVlyP4_11M?t... [youtu.be]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Meanwhile, millions of people are walking around, taking selfies and other images using phones that are made in China... and nobody seems to give a damn.
Meanwhile, anyone really wanting to do some information-gathering could be using even a consumer-grade camcorder with a large zoom to get very nice images/video of assets from a great distance and with zero chance of detection.
Sadly, the lingua franca of drone stories is *hysteria* and there's little sign of that changing any time soon.
Unfortunately, politicians, rule-makers, decision-makers and even judges read these hysterical reports and believe this FUD. As a result of this, a recent district court judge issued a judgement that started with the words "Drones are coming, and lots of them".
Yeah, right!
As someone who's been involved in the drone industry for almost two decades I can tell you that drones may be coming but for the forseeable future they'll be few and far between because the economics just don't add up except for a few minimal edge-cases. Sorry, no pizza and coffee deliveries by drones any time soon and as for the much touted "flying taxis" -- well yeah, Hiller proposed these back in the 1950s and we're still waiting.
Sorry, there are too many people who know very little about the reality of drones but who like the sound of their own voices and a media that realizes there's far more money to be made promoting hysteria and FUD than there is in simply reporting the facts.
Better yet, we are supposed to ba totally OK and relaxed over the US deploying the sons and grandsons of ECHELON all over the world to pry into the private affairs of every person on the planet but Chinese made mobile phones an d toy drones are a civilisation ending threat.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think this is ridiculous then you've probably never read the security alerts issued by Fatherland Security. Some of them would be absolutely comical if only I could forget that they were produced with my tax money. That just makes them infuriating.
Re: (Score:2)
*looks closer*
Oh! Hiller. Oops. I guess I should wear my glasses, eh?
Re: (Score:2)
I mostly agree with you. However, there's a reason law-enforcement agencies have drones, helicopters, etc; if you want to visually track people or vehicles in real-time, an aerial view is the most effective way.
So yeah, the media, politicians and others are conflating the "digital security risks" of using foreign-manufactured drones with the inherent surveillance capabilities of aerial vehicles with cameras. Throw in some jingoism and let the clickbait write itself.
"three people privy" (Score:1)
Blimey, I'd rather shit in private if you don't bloody mind.
2 birds with one drone (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Eagles can't eat drones, and they have to eat something, these somethings will include your pet cats and small dogs, so this would probably upset the citizens of DC...
You thought pigeon owners were angry about peregrine falcons and kestrels returning and eating their stock due to rat poison being banned, and no longer killing these birds in large numbers.
Re: 2 birds with one drone (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: 2 birds with one drone (Score:2)
next step, blow'em outta the sky (Score:3)
'Muricaaaaa!!
Very good in dropping grenades in Russian trenches (Score:1)
Any choad can make and fly a drone (Score:2)
I know, I've made and flown 4 quads so far... ok, 3 of them flew
Seriously though, you can get literally everything including a fairly high quality radio under $200 for a quad big enough to carry a quality camera rig... or a grenade.
Re: (Score:2)
Asking for a friend, of course.
if it's so secret (Score:2)
Keep it covered or indoors away from windows!
Doioiooioioi!
This is not just an attempt at fearmongering, but a very lame attempt at one,
Redundant (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Redundant (Score:2)
"Restricted airspace" (Score:2)
So many people living in or near DC got a DJI drone, found out they can't use it anywhere within 15 miles of DC (that's right, the "restricted airspace" is the entire District and a good chunk of surrounding MD and VA), went online to figure out how to disable this misfeature, and then enjoyed their drones. Boo hoo.
Obligatory South Park reference (Score:2)
You think the U.S. government is worried, what about Craig's mom!? That's a definite no-go zone.
Hundreds of Chinese-manufactured drones ... (Score:2)
Are there even any non-Chinese-manufactured recreational drones?
Nothing will happen (Score:2)
Article is badly wrong on stuff (Score:2)
Shocked (Score:2)
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud] Captain Renault: Everybody out at once! [1]
-Casablanca (1942)