Drone to Test Networks Security

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At the recent Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, cybersecurity researchers showed how drones can help secure wireless networks and bulster cybersecurity.

David Latimer, an analyst at the cybersecurity firm Bishop Fox, demonstrated the Danger Drone, a custom-built quadcopter drone that anyone with enough technical knowhow can build for about $500. “It’s a fully functional hacker’s laptop that can fly,” he said.

According to Digital Trends, the goal was to make a cheap, easy-to-create hacking drone so that cybersecurity professionals can test out the defenses that they’re rolling out. It’s a drone for penetration testing, to see how effective the defenses against this kind of thing actually are.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the idea behind Danger Drone is that professionals would deploy it to remotely test the resiliency of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth networks outside office buildings, attempt to penetrate the networks using the drone, and then patch the vulnerabilities.

Melrose says increasingly small and powerful drones could inflict significant damage if in the wrong hands.