Drone Hijacking? That’s Just the Start of GPS TroublesJuly 8,
2012 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. Deceiving
the drone’s GPS receiver, they changed its perceived
coordinates. To compensate, the small copter dove straight down,
thinking it was returning to its pro