Page 72 - World Airnews February Magazine Edition 2021

COLUMN

THE COMMERCIALISATION

OF DRONES

By Robert R. Ackerman Jr

overly conservative. can then fly to the location of the event

“Almost anyone you talk to will probably using pre-defined flight routes, locking the
or years, there has been optimistic agree that drones will be commonly used camera on intend targets and waiting for

Ftalk that drones - the popular name in almost all industries across the board,” further instructions.
for UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) - said Dino Boukouris, a strategic and M&A Security is the bigger issue and needs
would become ubiquitous and used for se- advisor at Momentum Cyber which coun- more work. Once a drone has been located,
curity purposes. Instead, drones have been sels the cybersecurity ecosystem and is an it can be hacked and video and other im-

popular among hobbyists but much less so expert on drones and drone security. ages the drone is broadcasting to its base

in the commercial sector, undermined by “Look for the drone industry to be station can be downloaded.

strict federal government restrictions. opening up hundreds of thousands of jobs Drones are already being used to target
in coming years,” said Brett Velicovich, an

But it’s changing. The drone-industry independent, Washington-based consul- Wi-Fi connections, many of which are not

is becoming an increasingly promising tant known as “drone warrior,” with four well secured. Too often, they rely solely

technology-intensive industry, one that Fortune 500 clients. on single-factor authentication and the
will employ far more workers than it does use of typical passwords that can be easily

today while enhancing the efficiency and Major players will include the agricultural cracked, especially with the absence of an

security of a variety of businesses. and utility industries, construction, oil and encrypted connection.
gas, and first responders. And, arguably, the

Just after Christmas, US regulators after It’s also a concern that drones are com-

a long delay finally established industry- biggest of all could be the security industry. monly manufactured in China or assem-
wide requirements for remote identifica- “Today, security guards do rounds once bled from Chinese components and could

tion of drones. an hour,” Boukouris said. “How efficient is contain a hidden backdoor for the Chinese
that? Drones could solve that need easily.”
government. Fortunately, there is some
This means that the Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA), which heretofore had In coming years, companies are high- good news on the drone front as well.

to approve drone use beyond the line-of-sight ly likely to adopt UAVs to monitor their Drones, like other electronic devices, can be

on a case-by-case basis, has now instead perimeters, to the point where it will likely better protected. Major drone manufactur-
established broad safety standards. These are thin the ranks of guards. This is predictable ers issue patches when new security threats
intended to promote eventual widespread because the key to security events is the emerge and these should always be installed.

home delivery of small packages and a num- timely, efficient understanding of pertinent Also helpful is a virtual private network (VPN),

ber of other previously restricted applications. details and the assignment of actions in which stops hackers from accessing communi-

Among other things, the FAA has mandated response to the event. cations when connected to the internet.

the use of onboard radio transmitters for Drones have the edge because details In coming years, storage in the cloud and,

drones to transmit their positions, substantial- of the event and assigned actions are in particular, encryption, will be the best

ly enhancing drone safety. Existing models will uploaded directly via software to the drone answer to security concerns. The latter will

have to be retrofitted with the technology. for immediate deployment. In the case of become common as prices recede.

These new steps open the door in 2021 to a human intrusion, a geospatially-enabled Significant growth in commercial drones is
video management system can automati-

the natural business appetite to jump on a cally inform the drone of the intrusion and a matter of dollars and cents and funda-

profitable opportunity. The FAA estimates the exact location of the event. The drone mentally inevitable. Risk alone will not stop

that there are 1.25 million person- industries from embracing drones,

al drones in the United States and especially as they are continually out-

385,000 commercial drones. Now the fitted with better camera systems and

FAA predicts by 2023 there will be batteries. This is a good thing.

835,000 commercial drones - more No question, the widespread use of

than double the current number - drones will create significant new op-

largely because more businesses will portunities for the security industry and
adopt UAV programmes for deliver- also help juice the overall economy. Q

ies, inspections and other uses.

With the new regulations, this Article shortened - courtesy: https://

forecast could easily turn out to be www.securitymagazine.com/articles/
World Airnews | February 2021s | December 2017
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