[neonasafluni]

06/29/2012 3:40 pm Huffington Post



When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security dared a Texas university research group to
bring down a flying drone, the team accepted the challenge and did just that.

Turns out it's not too difficult to hack a drone.

Nor too expensive, for that matter. RT reports that the University of Texas at Austin scientists, led by
Professor Todd Humphreys, managed to bring down a flying drone with a spoofer costing just $1,000.
The research group gained control of the University-owned drone by using a device to hack its GPS
system, according to Scientific American.

Fox News explains how "spoofing" a drone's GPS system works, as well as the advantages of this tactic
over GPS-jammers: "While jammers can cause problems by muddling GPS signals, spoofers are a giant
leap forward in technology; they can actually manipulate navigation computers with false information
that looks real."

The BBC notes that the same technique may have been employed by Iran when it captured a largely
undamaged American drone last year.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, have become increasingly central to U.S. counter-
terrorism operations. The United States has deployed drones over Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and
Yemen.