Spotlight

“A University of Texas team spent less than $1,000 to construct a GPS “spoofing” device that commandeered an unmanned aerial vehicle and sent it veering off course. After initially demonstrating the concept on campus in Austin, Assistant Professor Todd Humphreys and his team were invited out to White Sands, N.M., on June 19 by skeptical Department of Homeland Security officials and proved that they were able to divert a UAV from its flight path from about a kilometer away, according to a university news release. “The recent demonstration by University of Texas at Austin researchers is the first known unequivocal demonstration that commandeering a UAV via GPS spoofing is technically feasible,” the release states.”

Continue reading the Marine Corps Times article.

“One of the greatest advantages of drones—for gathering intelligence, patrolling borders, doing weather research, or killing terrorists—is that they can be piloted by people who are on the ground and far away. They can do dangerous, difficult, tedious tasks without requiring the risk of human lives. For their critics, there is a flip side to this: Drones risk making it too easy to kill without perceived consequences, or spy, or monitor every instant of everyone’s lives. Now there’s something new to worry about. If we can control our drones at a distance, what’s to ensure that someone else won’t do it, too? How easy would it be for someone to hijack a drone and Svengali-like, get it to do what they wanted, instead of its mission? Not as hard as one might hope. That’s what a team led by Todd Humphreys, an assistant professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and head of its Radionavigation Laboratory, proved last month.”

Continue Reading the Bloomber Businessweek Technology article.

“Graduate students from the University of Texas who hijacked a civilian drone aircraft have demonstrated just how easy it would be to redirect unmanned vehicles—so-called UAVs that someday may do everything from delivering pizza to our doorstep to tracking stolen cars and aiding law enforcement. The hijacking was done over White Sands, New Mexico, at the request of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Officials with the department wanted to know if the students could actually do it. They did. The department has been reluctant even to talk about it. And the professor behind the capture has mixed emotions.”

Continue reading the ABC article.Tags: Daniel ShepardJahshan BhattiKyle WessonTodd Humphreys

“A professor at The University of Texas has figured out how to intercept drones while in flight. Todd Humphreys and his team taps into the GPS coordinates of a civilian drone and can alter the flight path, even land it. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz speaks with Humphreys about how he did it and the dangers that hacking can present.”

Continue to NPR to listen to the radio interview.

“On the evening of June 19, a group of researchers from the University of Texas successfully hijacked a civilian drone at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico during a test organized by the Department of Homeland Security. The drone, an Adaptive Flight Hornet Mini, was hovering at around 60 feet, locked into a predetermined position guided by GPS. Then, with a device that cost around $1,000 and the help of sophisticated software that took four years to develop, the researchers sent a radio signal from a hilltop one kilometer away. In security lingo, they carried out a spoofing attack. “We fooled the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) into thinking that it was rising straight up,” says Todd Humphreys, assistant professor at the Radionavigation Laboratory at the University of Texas.”

Continue reading the WIRED Danger Room article.

Read a follow-up article published after the congressional hearing.

“By 2015, unmanned drones will be allowed in U.S. airspace, raising many questions about our national security and privacy. What some University of Texas researchers set out to prove was whether it took much effort to hack them. With just $1,000 worth of software, the group was able to successfully hijack a civilian drone. Dr. Todd Humphreys and his team of students first experimented at the University of Texas at Austin. Then, the team was asked to demonstrate the process for the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Humphreys and graduate student Daniel Shepherd explain how they were able to hack into the drone, and what implications it has for our nation’s safety.”

Continue to CNN to watch the video interview with Daniel Shepard and Dr. Humphreys.

“After a dress rehearsal at Royal-Memorial Stadium, University of Texas researchers traveled to New Mexico last month and demonstrated for U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials how an unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, can be commandeered by hacking into its navigation system.

The technique, known as spoofing, created false Global Positioning System signals that tricked the drone’s GPS receiver into steering a new course.

The Global Positioning System, which uses satellites and radio signals, is not encrypted for civilian uses, and that raises concern about the federal government’s plan to permit thousands of drones in U.S. air space for commercial, law enforcement and university purposes, said Todd Humphreys, an assistant professor in UT’s Cockrell School of Engineering. “The dirty fact is it’s an open signal, and easily hacked,” Humphreys said.”

Continue reading the Austin American Statesman article.

“The use of drones is taking off in America. Local governments and private businesses see them as a cheap and effective way of maintaining an eye from the sky. But will the drones be fully under their control? A college professor and his students say not necessarily. A civilian drone aircraft was hijacked by Prof. Todd Humphreys and his graduate students at the University of Texas. They were able to hack into the GPS signals of the drone, not only manipulating its flight path while flying over White Sands, New Mexico, but later landing it. Humphreys told CBS News, “You can think of this as hijacking a plane from a distance. (It’s) as if you’re at the controls of the plane, because you’ve now captured the autopilot’s sense of its own navigation solution. And you can manipulate it left or right, up or down.”

Continue reading the CBS article that features a video interview with Dr. Humphreys.

“Todd Humphreys’ tale about hacking a civilian drone in front of the Department of Homeland Security has gone viral since he conducted the experiment last month. Now the assistant professor at the University of Texas explains his work to RT. In an interview with RT America this week, Todd Humphreys of the University of Texas at Austin’s Radionavigation Laboratory reveals that it only took a few researchers, around $1,000 in parts and some seriously smart software to send signals to an unmanned aerial vehicle’s GPS receiver, hijack the craft in mid-air and then have it do the department’s bidding—all right in front of Homeland Security agents.”

Continue reading the RT article that features a video interview with Dr. Humphreys.

RT’s video interview can also be viewed on YouTube.

“A University of Texas professor recently hacked into the GPS system of a drone aircraft and take control of it using less than $1,000 worth of equipment. The achievement may have implications for the future use of drones in the United States and abroad. Let’s say you’re hungry and you’ve craving a meal from your favorite restaurant. But instead of a delivery car pulling up to the curb, a drone lands at your front door. It could happen. Todd Humphreys of the Radionavigation Laboratory at UT Austin thinks so.

Continue reading the KUT article that features an audio interview with Dr. Humphreys.