Israeli researchers find way to spot drone surveillance

Drones Photo: Shutterstock
Drones Photo: Shutterstock

The invention by Ben Gurion University researchers will be presented at the world's largest cybertech conference outside the US.

The use of drones has become common and popular in recent years, but has brought many problems in its wake. Civilian use of drones has led to invasion of other people's privacy, from nosy neighbors wanting to see how you designed your living room to a teenager peeping into your bathroom.

At the security level, the use of drones poses an intelligence challenge. A trained terrorist controlling a drone can photograph the deployment of IDF forces in the border area, or construction of an engineering barrier against tunnels for the purpose of staging a terrorist attack that will prevent the work.

A new study at Ben Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev unveils a technique for detecting the photographing of a target by drones from an encrypted video stream. "While it has been possible to detect a drone, now someone can also tell if it is recording a video of your location or something else," a researcher at the BGU Cyber Security Research Center said.

In the first simulation, the researchers showed how it is possible to detect an attempted invasion of a person's privacy in his home. A smart curtain placed on the window intercepted the encrypted video traffic broadcast from the drone to the operator on a First Person View (FPV) channel. The flickering of the smart curtain caused by the increased rate of video traffic from the drone enabled the researchers to prove that a neighbor was illegally using a DJI Mavic drone to photograph the house, thereby violating the owner's privacy.

The method can be used from any mobile computer with a Linux OS operating system, and does not require complicated break-in capabilities or cryptographic training.

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

Drones Photo: Shutterstock
Drones Photo: Shutterstock
Twitter Facebook Linkedin RSS Newsletters גלובס Israel Business Conference 2018