The DroneGun interferes with robotic aircraft at a very safe distance

There are a number of systems that can be used to shoot down wayward or dangerous drones, but they tend to have one big problem: You need to be relatively close to the drone, which can be scary if the robotic plane is packing explosives. DroneGun, a jammer gps that disables drone signals (including GPS and GLONASS positioning) from up to 1.2 miles away. Like most of its competitors, it doesn't destroy the target drone - it simply forces the vehicle to land or return to its starting point. Counter-drone teams can not only eliminate threats from a safe distance, but also locate their pilots.

It's not the lightest machine, but it's portable enough for one person to use. You also don't need technical training, so it's easy for security personnel to use.

Whether you see DroneGun running or not is another matter. It's not yet FCC certified, so you can't legally operate it in the United States unless you work for the government. If approved, though, it could help shoot down drones at airports, protect soldiers from drone bombs and help in situations where they simply can't get close.

Drones can use anti-laser jammers to protect themselves

There have been many efforts to build lasers that destroy drones. But how to protect these drones? Adsys Controls thinks it can help. It's making Helios, a passive jammer that confuses laser weapons. If it detects an incoming laser beam, it detects the characteristics of that beam (such as its pulse and wavelength) and interferes with it to prevent the laser from locking on and baking the drone. The company did not specify how the jamming works, although it could be an anti-laser. The only certainty is that it's reliable - it's "permanent protection" against subsequent lock attempts, not just a brief interruption.

You may have to wait a while to see Helios in action, as there is currently no mention of a contract. Moreover, it is uncertain how effective it will be. Can a laser be aimed at part of a drone without being caught by a jammer? Is the system fast enough to stop the highest power laser from burning up the drone in seconds? Still, drones do not yet have true anti-laser defense capabilities. Any protection is bound to help, and if Adsys' solution lives up to its hype, it could be very effective.

The FCC is pursuing cell phone jammer that could leave users in the lurch

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has put a bounty on the head of any vigilante who hates cell phones. These GPS and signal jammers are especially popular in theaters, quiet restaurants and many school systems that struggle with sexting in the classroom. The FCC is calling on people to stop using the devices and report them to neighbors because they pose a serious health and safety risk by interfering with 911 calls and other emergencies nearby. Therefore, if you recognize a so-called "jammer," don't hesitate to file a complaint with the FCC, information can be found in the source link below.

Twenty years after the worst attack to ever occur on U.S. soil, it's not just large, populated passenger planes that keep officials and experts up at night, but also the threat of smaller, readily available unmanned aerial systems capable of carrying deadly payloads through the skies of an unsuspecting nation.

 

Drones are not tomorrow's weapons of mass destruction. They're here today, and the technology required to fashion such a device is only getting cheaper, smarter and more accessible.

 

One U.S. military official who requested anonymity paints a potential nightmare scenario involving small drones, referred to as unmanned aerial systems, unmanned aircraft systems, or simply, UAS.

"I kind of wonder what could you do if you had a couple of small UAS and you flew into a crowded stadium," the U.S. military official told Newsweek. "That could cause a lot of damage and it's a scenario that could potentially be in play."

 

While "no specific knowledge" of an active threat was discussed, the U.S. military official said that "there is concern given the proliferation of small, portable drones, that explosive drones could cause a mass casualty event."

 

It wouldn't be the first time the nation had been caught off guard by a possible danger looming right in front of authorities.

 

"It's just like I had no specific knowledge before 9/11 that people could hijack planes and crash into buildings, but Tom Clancy wrote a book about it," the U.S. military official said.

 

When the political thriller "Debt of Honor" was released in 1994 depicting a hijacked airliner targeting the U.S. Capitol, the concept of an aerial suicide raid had largely been confined in the national consciousness to the experience of Japanese kamikaze pilots in World War II. It wasn't until nearly 3,000 were killed on September 11, 2001 that what had been an eventuality became a reality.

 

But when it comes to UAS, the age of tactical drone warfare is already upon us. Shortly after 9/11, the United States became the first country to truly weaponize drones, fitting them with precision missiles that became a staple of the "War on Terror."

 

In the years since, drones have evolved from a high-end military technology to a commercial hobby flown by enthusiasts across the globe and sold by a multitude of companies on the civilian market. With the explosion of this seemingly innocent innovation has come a rise in nefarious usage that the U.S. military official with whom Newsweek spoke described as "an emergent threat" already demonstrated in several high-profile events.

 

One such event came just last weekend when three explosive-laden UAS, believed to be simple quadcopter models, targeted the residence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in an assassination attempt. Kadhimi lived, but photos released of his home revealed the destructive capabilities of such devices.

 

Kadhimi was not the first world leader to be preyed upon by bomb-rigged UAS. In August 2018, two drones carrying explosives detonated in an apparent failed attempt to take out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a military parade in Caracas. He also escaped with his life.

 

Prior to these incidents, militants and militias had already managed to utilize such technology, giving non-state actors a sort of rudimentary yet deadly air force to take on better-equipped foes. In Iraq and Syria, U.S. troops have been targeted from above by both the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and Iran-aligned paramilitary forces.

 

Even more destructive platforms have seen action on the battlefield in the form of what's known as loitering munitions, or suicide drones. Last year, Azerbaijani forces demonstrated a deadly edge over Armenian rivals during a brief but bloody war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory through their use.

 

"They're relatively small, inexpensive drones, but they kind of cross that boundary between a drone and guided missile," the U.S. military official said.

 

This point was echoed by a security official from Israel, a country that produced some of the loitering munitions employed by Azerbaijani forces with substantial effect and now prove a potential concern for Iran as tensions simmer between the neighbors.

 

"This tool today is so easy, and small drones, you just really order them in and you've got yourself like a guided precision missile," the Israeli security official told Newsweek.

 

The Israeli security official noted that even with their current destructive potential, the munitions attached to such UAS today are in their relative infancy, not yet on a scale that any one of them alone could replicate a 9/11-style attack.

 

But their potential is already rapidly growing

 

"They are becoming much more accurate in their capabilities of navigation," the Israeli security official said. "I think where we will be seeing things is that the amount of explosives will get bigger now."

 

Smaller commercial UAS have another unique advantage over traditional aircraft and missile platforms: They have no launch signature, making them far more difficult to detect. Used in greater numbers, known as a swarm, they're also harder to intercept.

"If you need to intercept a dozen, an F-16 payload, if it's only doing air-to-air would be about six different air-to-air missiles, or similar to an F-35," the Israeli security official said. "So that already means that you need a few airplanes, and you need the time if you're looking at interception."

 

Israel was among the first nations to refine wartime drone technology, and it continues to field various platforms for covert missions. But its rivals have also demonstrated an early prowess for such technology, as proven by the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Palestinian Hamas, and their supporter, Iran.

 

Iran has developed an extensive arsenal of drones, including suicide drones capable of flying beyond 2,000 kilometers, exceeding 1,240 miles. Israel and the U.S. have both accused Iran of directly supplying UAS technology to partnered militias across the region, an allegation denied by the Islamic Republic.

 

"I think Tehran has its own independent defense program based on its defense needs and can define its efforts to counter the threats by strengthening its defense capabilities," an Iranian official told Newsweek.

 

China has also excelled in UAS technology, and Russia has developed high-end systems of its own as well.

 

The Israeli security official noted another trend that could prove deeply problematic to the safety of the region and beyond, a trend linked to Israel's ally, the U.S., and the withdrawal from a 20-year war in Afghanistan, where ISIS has sought to stage a comeback in a country the U.S. first entered in response to 9/11.

 

"We see another rise of terror, and I'll say, being both humble and appreciative to the U.S., but after Afghanistan, we do see a rise in what potentially could come again with the terror activities and the kind of backing that some of the terror organizations feel stronger and maybe even more courageous," the Israeli security official said. "This tool of drones can definitely be something that we might be seeing more."

 

One man who has written and spoken extensively on the potential impact of drones in the wrong hands is Zachary Kallenborn.

Kallenborn is a policy fellow at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government and a research affiliate with the University of Maryland's Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. He has also served as a national security consultant and contributed to the U.S. Army as part of its Mad Scientist Laboratory.

 

"Drones are definitely capable of causing mass casualties," Kallenborn told Newsweek

 

Echoing the example put forth by the U.S. military official with whom Newsweek spoke, he imagines a crowded event as a potential target.

 

"Growing drone technology also increasingly allows drones to be flown autonomously or in collaborative swarms," Kallenborn said. "That increases the damage potential significantly. Imagine a terrorist air raid: a group of drones dropping bombs on a concert or stadium crowd."

 

Even more damaging, attackers could vastly multiply casualties by employing weapons of mass destruction, Kallenborn warned.

"Drones would be highly effective delivery systems for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons," he said. "Drones could, say, spray the agent right over a crowded area."

 

Kallenborn said he was "also quite concerned about drone attacks on airplanes, because aircraft engines and wings are not designed to survive drone strikes."

 

But he notes that "who the attacker is matters a lot," adding that "a big limiter" for the worst-case scenarios "is the ability of terrorists to acquire the chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent, which they have historically struggled with."

 

He pointed out the difficulty of a militant group acquiring both the material and manpower to fly a larger swarm-sized fleet while avoiding detection.

 

"But that limitation is not an issue for state militaries," Kallenborn said. "Militaries have the resources and technology to make truly massive swarms that could rival the harm of traditional weapons of mass destruction, including small nuclear weapons."

 

"Not only is such a weapon massively powerful, it would be quite difficult to control," he added. "If you have 1,000 drones working together without human control, that's 1,000 opportunities for failure. And even more, because in a true drone swarm, the drones talk. As we've seen with COVID vaccine paranoia, misinformation can spread easily even among beings far smarter than an algorithm-guided drone."

 

As humans and machines are wont to err, so are defenses, and drones add a new level of difficulty in their ability to conduct random, difficult-to-detect operations. The U.S. military official with whom Newsweek spoke expressed a level of skepticism regarding existing defenses being acquired by the Department of Defense.

 

"The DOD is pouring a lot of money and effort into counter-UAS technology, but I think the DOD's PR exceeds the actual capability of these devices," the U.S. military official said.

 

One of the agencies keeping an eye out for UAS and drone activity on the domestic side is the Federal Aviation Authority. An FAA spokesperson told Newsweek that "the FAA is tasked with ensuring the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS) as well as people and property on the ground."

 

"When criminal activity is suspected, we work with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners by providing them assistance with their investigations and prosecutions," the spokesperson said.

 

One way in which the FAA is seeking to improve the ability for authorities to determine potential problems posed by UAS is by enforcing remote identification, through which drones would be required to provide key information such as identity, altitude and current location as well as the location of its operator and take-off point.

 

"Remote identification requirements for all UAS operators, when combined with our current registration requirement, will enable more effective detection and identification," the FAA spokesperson said. "This will also help law enforcement to connect an unauthorized drone with its operator. Remote identification will help law enforcement determine if a drone poses an actual threat that needs to be mitigated, or if it's an errant drone that got away from someone but means no harm."

 

The rise of the drone threat has given birth to a booming new industry of counter-drone technologies. Among the leading companies in this field is DroneShield, an Australian firm that has supplied cutting-edge tools to the likes of the NATO military alliance and the United Nations.

 

DroneShield CEO Oleg Vornik shared Kallenborn's concerns about WMD-strapped UAS in large numbers.

 

"Small UAS can be seen as a highly effective and cheap platform for surveillance and payload delivery," Vornik told Newsweek. "For payload delivery, a small UAS can easily carry up to a few pounds of weight — this is a lot of explosive or biological or chemical weapons."

 

"What's more," he added, "at $1,000-$2,000 per UAS, and swarming technologies available today (think of giant figures in the sky or fireworks, all generated by choreographed drones), this can be easily in 100s of drones, each carrying a dangerous substance."

 

These figures may seem high, but Vornik argued that the general lack of oversight would make it hard to track acquisition. And even if suggested controls were put in place, he said, the threat would only partially be addressed.

 

"UAS can be purchased today in a completely unrestricted way, being considered toys, essentially. Registration would solve some of the issue, but consider how many unregistered firearms get used for terrorism," Vornik said. "The pilot of the drone would also be invisible/difficult to catch in an attack, making it more appealing to use"

 

In addition to the kinetic threat, he warned of potential cyber attacks employing UAS

 

"Call it a conspiracy, but we received reports that the Ever Given container ship (yes, the one that blocked Suez Canal and stopped much of sea traffic) was due to a cyber hacking from a drone, when a request for ransom was denied," Vornik said. "We are now hearing of this commonly from ship customers, especially in areas close to the better-known rogue states."

 

Last week, DroneShield released the 6th edition of its C-UAS, or counter-UAS, factbook, which details the scope of potential threats posed by small drones.

 

The guide covers recent events in drone warfare, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the 2019 attacks on Saudi Aramco oil sites, claimed by Yemen's Ansar Allah, or Houthi, movement but blamed by Saudi Arabia and the U.S. on Iran. It also gives examples of the latest innovations by China and Russia, and identifies some of the most popular heavy-lifting UAS that could be used even more discretely than their larger cousins.

 

The report provides potential solutions as well, including a range of detection capabilities such as radio frequency, radar, acoustic, optics and multi-sensor systems. It also lists neutralizing assets including drone radio frequency jammer, GPS jammers, cyber tactics, directed energy attacks, counter-UAS drones and kinetic systems capable of blasting UAS out of the sky.

 

"Without dedicated C-UAS system (for detection and defeat of such UAS)," Vornik said, "there would be no warning and no time to react, until it is too late and the damage is done."

 

As to whether such tools and methods would be employed before the next attack, he has expressed a note of skepticism.

"We live in a reactive society," Vornik said. "Boulders across the pathways have only started to be placed after terrorists used vehicles to bulldoze through crowds, as an example."

 

He warned that governments and their law enforcement and security agencies must start setting up systems now to defend against UAS attacks.

 

"We need to be more proactive in setting up UAS detection and defeat systems across areas where large gatherings of people are likely, the high profile places, sort of areas which would be terror sweet spots," Vornik said. "Law enforcement and homeland security personnel need to be trained for this threat, much like more conventional attacks."

As drones rise, so does counter-drone technology. While there are a variety of potential drone defense solutions, including surveillance equipment such as radars, radio frequency analyzers, or acoustic and optical sensors, as well as high-power microwave devices (HPMs), drone networks, and lasers, there is another Solution A hot topic in the drone industry recently: drones interfering with GPS.

 

Many drones (as well as other technologies such as transportation and freight fleets, and even smartphones) rely on GPS for navigation and tracking. But some criminals are trying to jam these GPS signals.

 

InfiniDome is an Israeli GPS security company founded in 2016 that produces a variety of products, but its main focus is on developing GPS signal protection systems. This summer, Infinidome published a white paper that clarified how drone gps jamming works and provided a very sobering demonstration of how vulnerable GPS systems (GNSS) are to jamming attacks.

 

You can download and read infiDome’s full GPS interference white paper here. I use it to give a quick overview of the most important things you should know about drone GPS interference. Here are the reasons why people try to jam drone GPS signals, how to jam them, and what to do about them.

Why does drone interference occur and why is it a problem?

 

There are many reasons why people would want to jam a drone’s GPS signal, including defense applications to prevent enemy drones from getting lost or crashing. While drones are used in systems such as aerial surveillance to catch drug traffickers, drug cartel criminals use drone jammers to prevent this from happening. In fact, Mexico reports that jamming was used in 85 percent of all recorded truck thefts, according to the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation, a science and education nonprofit based in Virginia. device. The foundation aims to protect critical infrastructure through technologies such as InfiniDome.

 

This isn't just about large military or serious legal use cases. A drone light show over a shopping mall in Zhengzhou, China, fell from the sky after someone used a drone jammer, putting 5,000 spectators at risk.

 

In short, even if you don’t necessarily believe there is an obvious enemy trying to destroy your drone, it’s crucial to be prepared for a drone GPS jammer attack. This also happens with drone light shows.

 

Jamming drone may not be all bad

 

This is not to say that all drone interference is necessarily bad or evil. In fact, it may sometimes be considered the opposite. The Federal Aviation Administration, for example, turned to counter-drone company Dedrone to help work on drone jammers to ensure unwanted drones aren't flying near airports and posing a safety risk to flights full of passengers. The Department of Defense also uses drones to protect secret areas or other locations that require security. InfiniDome created a video about drone interference (which also serves as an ad for their product), which you can watch here:

 

How does drone GPS jamming actually work?

 

So how does drone GPS jamming actually work?

 

The GNSS receiver used by the drone GPS jammer uses GPS signals (along with GLONASS, Galileo and other constellations - hence the name "GNSS" - Global Navigation Satellite System), but is known to be vulnerable to attack and easily jammed regardless of There is intentional interference - but often even unintentional interference occurs (like you may have experienced while driving through a tunnel in a mountain, or sometimes even in certain areas of your home where cell phone blocker reception is interrupted).

 

Purchasing jamming equipment is easy and cheap. You don’t need an entire mountain to block GPS signals—you can find GPS jamming device online for less than $100. As long as the jammer is able to emit a stronger signal on the same frequency as yours, it will gain the upper hand and jam your drone.

 

Of course, it’s not that simple. There are all sorts of jamming attacks and signals, including Continuous Wavelength, where a single frequency is jammed and anything transmitted in that same frequency will be blocked. And with another method called narrow band, power is spread and diluted throughout the different frequencies making up a band (a range of around 2MHz). To attack, jammers “barrage” the bad by creating a series of narrow-band signals that transmit shortly one after each other.

The Russian Navy has installed temporary GPS jammers on at least one of its warships ahead of a high-profile naval parade in St. Petersburg, according to experts.

 

An image published Wednesday by military and open source intelligence analyst H I Sutton shows a photo of a Russian Navy frigate taken in Russia's second largest city on July 14 that appears to show multiple sets of GPS network jammer installed on the ship's exterior.

 

Newsweek could not independently verify the date and location of the video. However, military expert David Hamblin said the presence of GPS jammers on the ship does indicate that the Kremlin fears that Kiev, Ukraine supporters or anti-Putin groups will plot drone attacks. Samuel Bentt of the Center for Naval Analysis said it was "entirely feasible" that Moscow chose to use cell phone jammer and had done so before the war in Ukraine. But he told Newsweek that the evidence is limited and it's hard to judge.

The drone threat: GPS jamming systems and available countermeasures

 

While GPS jamming may not be the first thing on the minds of many drone operators, government and civilian customers around the world are vulnerable to GPS jamming technology, which can cause expensive drones to drop from the sky when hackers attack GPS access with easily accessible tools. Because the satellite GPS signals that actually reach vehicles and drones are quite weak, using radio frequency transmitters that operate at the same frequency as GPS can have catastrophic effects, as seen in the attack on a light show in Zhengzhou, China, where hundreds of drones crashed to the ground.

 

Typically, denial-of-service attacks on GPS networks are launched by powerful radio frequency transmitters that can use a variety of methods to try to interfere with satellite connections between drones or vehicles and satellite networks above them. To solve this problem, anti-jamming devices can try to change the direction of the high-frequency beam (using beamforming or steering), or dampen the attack frequency and create "invalid zones," which are more effective but more difficult to roll out.

Other experts were skeptical about the extent to which the images revealed possible interfering features on board.

It has been speculated that the potential jamming system could be part of the R-330Zh Zhitel(on-board system), or it could be part of the Pole-21E jamming system. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by email for comment.

 

Hamblin told Newsweek that Russia has an "extensive" track record of using GPS jamming - blocking GPS reception and "spoofing," showing the wrong location on trackers - to fend off drone attacks.

 

The first military parade was held in Russia's second largest city in 2017, TASS reported.

 

Drones and rapidly developing unmanned technology have played a major role in the war in Ukraine. Both sides want to use drone technology to inflict damage on critical infrastructure at low cost, and experts say the ongoing conflict has sparked drone innovation at "lightning speed."

 

But the Kremlin has said in recent months that beyond Ukraine's borders, Moscow itself has been repeatedly targeted by drone strikes.

 

On May 3, Russia said two drones had struck the Kremlin in what it called a "planned terrorist attack and assassination attempt against the president" ahead of annual Victory Day military celebrations. The Russian leader said in a statement that the drones were "intercepted on Kremlin territory, with debris scattered and without causing any casualties or damage".

 

"Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures at the time and place it deems appropriate," the Kremlin added.

Moscow has blamed Kiev for the attack, but Kiev has denied carrying out the drone strike

 

Later that month, the Russian military said eight Ukrainian drones had struck wealthy neighborhoods in Moscow, damaging several buildings. Three of the drones were neutralized by electronic warfare, the Russian Defense Ministry said at the time, adding that the remaining five were intercepted by the Pantsier-S air defense system.

 

On July 4, Moscow accused Ukraine of firing five drones at the Russian capital, saying four of them were destroyed by Russian air defense systems and the fifth was "neutralized by electronic warfare."

 

Russia's defence ministry said flights at Vnukovo airport, one of Moscow's main transport hubs, had been disrupted but there was no damage to infrastructure.

 

"Given the recent spate of drone strikes in Moscow, the main concern may be an aerial attack," Hamblin said of the Navy Day parade. But Russia has also accused Ukraine of using unmanned surface ships to carry out attacks on annexed territory in Crimea, attacking Russia's Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol and the Kerch Bridge, a key crossing point connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland.

 

Experts told Newsweek earlier this week that this type of attack, which typically uses improvised water drones, is one that Russia's defenses are inadequate for.

 

Hamblin said, however, that an attack on Russian forces in St. Petersburg on Navy Day seemed unlikely due to the distance between Ukrainian territory and the Baltic city.

Signal jamming is an attempt to interfere with and stop wireless communications. The culprit transmits noise on a specific radio frequency. Then, no one in the affected area can use services that rely on that frequency.

 

Confusingly, cellphone jammers do not prevent devices from getting good reception. However, they prevent the target from initiating or receiving calls or messages. Signal interference can also affect Internet services, leaving people without access to the Internet.

 

Is it possible to stop bomber drones?

 

As the name suggests, a bombing drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can be used for drone attacks. They are part of a larger subset of combat UAVs used for target acquisition, surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence gathering purposes.

Although bomber drones are unmanned, they have never been fully automated. Instead, humans tend to control them in real time from remote locations.

 

This, of course, means a significant reduction in weight compared to a typical aircraft, since all the necessities of a human pilot are no longer a factor here.

 

Anti-Drone Gun

 

The anti-drone gun is exactly what it sounds like. These are used to shoot at drones. A shot in this case could be physically destructive or could provide a burst of radio-frequency signal technology.

 

Perfect example of an anti-drone gun: It's a gps blocker that can neutralize all drones, even their GPS. By simultaneously interrupting signal types such as GPS-L1, GPS-L2, and ISM, all frequencies can be safely neutralized for up to 10 minutes on a single charge.

 

The design requires manual operation and has a surprisingly flat learning curve, meaning that it is little inconvenience for new operators to use. Given that the gun is equipped with a compass and GPS, which is advantageous for the operator, aiming at the target is not much of a challenge.

 

Electromagnetic pulse

 

The anti-drone EMP is very similar to the traditional EMP type, providing a destructive function to the electronic circuits in the drone. By using an antenna, the pulse can be properly focused and collateral damage prevented.

 

In movies, tracking devices are a writer's favorite gadget - a simple (and cliched) plot device that instantly foils villains. While the use of GPS tracking in the film is largely based on reality, the film doesn't show you the bureaucracy involved in making it legal. In addition, the films depict tracking devices as high-tech and sophisticated, using hardware and software that would not exist today.

 

Fiction: Hackers use GPS tracking devices to remotely disable and crash targeted cars.

 

Fact: Yes, car hacking is possible, as two hackers proved in 2015. However, it is important to know that they hacked the car through an onboard computer connected to the Internet. Aftermarket GPS tracking devices are only connected to the car's power supply and are not integrated with any other on-board electronics. That being said, there are some tracking devices for sale that advertise remote engine disabling.

 

The reality of GPS tracking is far less complicated than the movies show. Movies and other works of fiction may treat tracking devices as malicious tools that can be used to analyze and spy on unassuming innocents. In fact: If the police want to use GPS to track suspects, they need to obtain legal permission. A GPS tracker is a simple device that combines GPS coordinates with map data. While Black Knight does have additional features, our trackers will never integrate with your vehicle's computer and adversely affect its performance. In other words, they don't make your vehicle vulnerable to hacking.

 

Protect yourself from signal interference

 

In addition to detecting when someone is trying to interfere with your signal, there are a number of prevention methods you can consider.

 

First, you can change the Wi-Fi frequency and channel. Most signal wifi jamming devices block the 2.4 GHz frequency. So, by choosing 5 GHz, you can restore your Internet connection.

 

For home security systems, you can use tools that use proprietary algorithms that can identify interference. Such programs then alert the owner that someone is trying to interfere with the security system.

 

Finally, if you are unable to send a message or call, you can try using a VoIP service. This should help avoid attempts to interfere with radio frequencies.

A small surveillance drone flew over the Austin stadium, diligently following a series of GPS waypoints programmed into its flight computer. On the face of it, the mission was routine.

 

Suddenly, the drone veered sharply off course, deviating from its intended flight path and hurtling east. After a few minutes, when it was clear that something was seriously wrong, the drone made a sharp right turn and headed south. Then, as if some ghost had ordered the drone to self-destruct, it hurtled toward the ground. Just a few feet from some kind of disaster, a safety pilot with a radio control device saved the drone from crashing into the scene.

 

On the sidelines, there were smiles all around about the near-disaster. Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas at Austin's Radionavigation Laboratory have just completed a successful experiment: closing a hole in the government's plan to open U.S. airspace to thousands of drones.

They can be turned into weapons

 

Spoofing the GPS receiver on a drone is just another way to hijack a plane

 

In other words, with the right equipment, anyone can take control of a GPS-guided drone and make it do whatever they want.

Spoofing is a relatively new problem in GPS navigation. So far, the main problem has been GPS jammer device, which are easily available via the Internet and used by people to hide illegal use of GPS-tracked company vans, for example. Iran is also believed to have shot down a US spy drone in December by jamming drone its GPS, forcing it into automatic landing mode after losing direction.

 

"Tricking the GPS receiver on a drone is just another way to hijack a plane." Todd Humphreys, a researcher at the University of Texas Radio Navigation Laboratory

 

Cell phone jammer can cause problems by disrupting GPS signals, while spoofers are a huge leap forward in technology. They can actually manipulate navigation computers with false information that looks real. He used his device - what Humphreys says is the most advanced spoofer ever built (which costs just $1,000) - to infiltrate the drone's GPS system and send out a signal more powerful than those coming from satellites high in Earth's orbit. .

 

Initially, his signal matched that of the GPS, so the drone thought there was nothing wrong. That's when he strikes - sending his commands to an onboard computer to get the drone to follow his lead.

 

Mr Humphreys said the impact was severe. "Within one to three years, the airspace will have 20,000 drones," he told Fox News. "Every one of them could be a potential missile aimed at us."

 

Drones have been widely used in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, but so far GPS-guided drones have been limited to battlefield or southern border patrols and have not been allowed to fly widely in U.S. airspace.

 

Under pressure from the Pentagon and drone manufacturers, Congress ordered the FAA to write rules allowing government and commercial use of drones on U.S. soil by 2015. The plan could eventually see police drones spying on U.S. cities, drones monitoring power company transmission lines, or GPS-guided freighter-sized drones delivering packages across the country without a driver. FedEx founder Fred Smith said he hopes to add drones to his fleet soon.

 

The new rules have raised privacy concerns about a "surveillance society" where drones tirelessly monitor our every move 24/7. But Humphreys' experiment puts a whole new spin on anxieties about drones.

 

"What if you could shoot down one of these drones delivering a FedEx package and use it as your missile?" It's the same mentality as the 9-11 attackers."

 

This is something the government is acutely aware of. In the deserted desert of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, officials from the FAA and Department of Homeland Security watched Humphrey's team constantly take control of a drone from a remote mountaintop. The results were as dramatic as the test at UT Stadium a few days earlier.

 

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to identify and mitigate gps jamming with its new Patriot Watch and Patriot Shield programs, but the effort is poorly funded, still in its infancy, and mostly aimed at finding people using jammers rather than spoofers.

 

The potential consequences of GPS spoofing are simply chilling. Humphries warned that terrorist groups could match his technology and wreak havoc in crowded U.S. airspace.

 

"I'm afraid they're going to crash into other planes." "I'm worried they're going to crash into buildings. We could have a collision in the air and there could be casualties, so we want to prevent that from happening and fix it."

 

Unlike military drones, which use encrypted GPS systems, most drones flying over the United States will rely on civilian GPS, which is not encrypted and can be easily infiltrated. Humphreys warned that the government needed to address the loophole before allowing drones widespread access to U.S. airspace.

 

"It just shows the mindset that we had after 9-11, when we reinforced the cockpit doors to prevent people from hijacking airplanes - well, in terms of the navigation systems of these drones, we need to adopt that mindset."

Proliferation of wireless signal jammers

Communications jamming technology is falling into the hands of paramilitary groups and criminals

Our society is increasingly dependent on wireless technology. We wake up in the morning, check email via WiFi, unlock and start the car with the keychain in our pocket, and use our cell phones to make important calls on our way to work. When we go to a new place, we rely on GPS to guide us. Stolen or misplaced items can be located via LoJack or wireless AirTags. On a larger scale, much of our military and civilian infrastructure depends on wireless communications. Unfortunately, these signals are vulnerable to another type of wireless device: signal jammers.

In general, jammers simply disrupt existing wireless signals by flooding them with noise. By adjusting the jammer to a specific target frequency range and emitting a high-power noise, tone, or pulse, the jammer can interfere with nearby receivers trying to listen for that frequency. Traditionally, this has meant interfering with radio communications, but the same core principles apply to other types of wireless signals - cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and so on. Jammer ranges vary depending on the power and size of the device; In urban environments, small handheld jammers may be effective at a range of 100 meters or less, while large military-grade jammers can be installed in locations that easily cover hundreds of miles of open terrain.

Military and paramilitary uses of signal jammers

Jammers were widely used during World War II, when the Nazis jammed Allied radio transmissions in occupied Europe, and only became increasingly popular during the Cold War. The Soviet Union and China jammed incoming signals, Cuba blocked American radio stations, and North and South Korea jammed each other's transmissions. Signal jammers are still widely used as a component of electronic warfare (EW), especially by the Russian military. Russia reportedly used the technology to interfere with U.S. low-altitude surveillance drones during the Syrian conflict in 2018; It is unclear whether this caused them to crash or simply go off course. There have also been reports that Russia has used powerful gps blocker on its eastern border, causing Latvia's phone system to go down and planes in the area to lose GPS signals.

Without further ado, jammers have become a very popular tool among Mexican drug cartels. They appear to go hand in hand with another technology adopted by the cartels: drones.

Small commercial drones have been used to monitor territory, especially at night with the help of thermal cameras. They are also weaponized and can drop explosives on targets, a tactic previously used by the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. As a result, cartel members wear portable signal jammers that can interfere with nearby drone uplinks as well as cellular and radio communications.

Civil black market and criminal use

At this point, you might be thinking, "I'm not a high-value military target or part of a warring drug cartel, so I don't have any reason to care about gsm signal jammer." However, this is not the case. Signal jammers are cheap, easy to use, and available online at any time to people who know where to find them. They can affect your daily life in a number of ways - veteran surveillance device maker Tiny Transmitters has posted some surprising demonstrations on Instagram to prove it.

The first demonstration video clip shows how a portable jammer can be tuned to the frequency of a car keychain and block its signal when the switch is pressed. This means a thief can see you park, turn on the jammer before you press the lock button on your remote key, and prevent your car from locking. Unless you happen to notice that your vehicle isn't rattling or flashing, you might assume it's locked and walk away, allowing criminals to steal any valuables inside (or take the car itself).

Another video shows how a jammer can be used to interrupt a wireless doorbell camera by blocking its ability to communicate with a home WiFi network. Unless the camera has a hard-wired data connection (unlike most Ring, Blink, Wyze, and Nest doorbell cameras), it won't be able to stream video to a cloud server or alert the homeowner that someone is at the door. Tiny Transmitters explains: "As you can guess, running an all-wireless home security system has a fundamental and terrible flaw: the wireless signal can be interfered with."

Wireless signal jammers have many other possible applications, from secretly intercepting cell phone calls to disabling GPS tracking devices. These uses are illegal, but as we know, motivated criminals are unlikely to be able to reconsider the law and FCC regulations.

We're not trying to tell you to stop using WiFi, throw away your phone, or throw away your ham radio - wireless devices are convenient and very useful in an emergency. However, for the safety of your family and property, it is wise to keep in mind its potential vulnerabilities and take steps to limit over-reliance on wireless devices.

Secret Service tests way to intercept rogue drones with late-night flights over Washington

 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service will conduct mysterious midnight drone flights over the next few weeks in parts of Washington, often a strict no-fly zone, as part of a secret government test aimed at , find ways to jam or shoot rogue drones out of the sky.

 

A U.S. official with knowledge of the program said the Secret Service is testing drones for law enforcement or protection work and looking at methods such as signal jamming to stop the threat of civilian drones. The drones were flown between 1am and 4am. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the plans publicly. The Secret Service said the details were classified.

 

Some consumer-grade drones, often with cameras, are powerful enough to carry small amounts of explosives or grenades.

The challenge for the Secret Service is to quickly detect an illegal drone flying near the White House or the President's seat, then hack it for a short period of time to control its flight, or jam its signal to throw it off course or crash it.

 

The Secret Service said only that it would publicly test the drones over Washington, but declined to provide specifics, such as when they would fly, how many drones would be flying, which parts of the city they would fly over, how long they would be flying and for what purpose. It decided to give the public early notice of the tests out of concern that people who saw them might panic, especially after they were spotted over Paris at night recently. Flying at night also reduces the possibility of radio interference accidentally affecting nearby businesses, drivers, pedestrians and tourists.

 

Trying to keep a drone away from a safe area can be tricky

 

Under U.S. communications law, it is illegal to sell or use mobile signal jammer unless a government agency is doing so for a narrow purpose.

 

Depending on the drone's manufacturer and capabilities, its flight control and video broadcast systems typically use the same common radio frequencies as popular Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. Secret Service drone radio frequency jamming—depending on how powerful or precise its work is—could disrupt nearby Internet networks or phone conversations until it was shut down. Testing in real-world environments around the White House will reveal unintended effects of disruptive effects on nearby buildings, monuments or tall trees.

 

Signals from an incoming drone, such as those from a video stream back to the pilot, could allow the Secret Service to detect and track it

 

Federal agencies typically need approval from the U.S. telecommunications advisory body, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to jam signals. The agency declined to tell The Associated Press whether the Secret Service seeks permission, as the agency said such requests are not routinely made public.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed that it has formally authorized the Secret Service to fly drones and granted it a special waiver to fly over Washington. The agency declined to provide details about the secretive program.

 

In January, a wayward quadcopter drone piloted by an off-duty US intelligence officer landed on the White House lawn. At the time, the Secret Service said the false landing appeared to be accidental and was not considered a security threat.

 

The agency had been studying safety issues surrounding drones before the January crash, but that crash led the agency to focus more on the safety of small, hard-to-detect drones. on security issues. Previously released reports revealed that the Secret Service had used anti-tracking jammer in the presidential and vice-presidential motorcade to disrupt signals that could detonate hidden remote-triggered improvised explosive devices.

 

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate are working on strategies to intercept unauthorized drones flying in secure areas. The Department of Homeland Security's research arm is trying to balance the security concerns of small, hard-to-detect devices with emerging commercial uses and hobbyist interests. Likewise, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said last week that it was studying how the United States could address privacy risks through increased use of drones.