Watch out for drone hackers flying in the sky

Yeah, hackers are kind of scary. And drone aircraft, sure that’s scary too. But what if you combined them?!

From MIT Technology Review:

“People see the threat coming from the Internet,” Dietrich says. “What they are forgetting is that behind their back, there is that wireless network that may not be properly protected.”

Dietrich is Sven Dietrich at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Dietrich and two students have put together a drone that can be used to make and control a botnet – all while it’s flying around.

Again, from MIT Technology Review:

So instead of controlling a botnet via a command-and-control server on the Internet–a common technique that can lead investigators back to the operator–the hackers can issue commands via the drone. This method creates an “air gap”–the weak spot represented by a wireless network–that could prevent investigators from identifying those responsible for an attack.

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