The drone race under hacker attack

The drone race in Turin was stopped because of a hacker attack. The Drone Grand Prix provides a track on which the drones flew at up than 160 Km/h, but during the opening night the viewers saw a sudden stopping of the show.

From the drone to the drone race

The word drone is the name with which are called the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), which are devices able to fly while driven through remote control. The drones often have a high definition camera which is able to give breathtaking pictures.

They were born in the military field, only in the 2000 they started to be available to the big audience until to arrive to the drone race. They are the successors of the remote control airplanes and they can station in mid air, strongly turn and even obliquely fly.

They are available in many versions: for example with a planar structure, which is much more similar to the airplanes, they use the currents and the air flow to fly or the hybrids, which were created even to move on the ground.

The drones are ever more used in the movie and television industry to do amazing aerial filmings, which once were so expensive.

With the mass usage it was necessary to introduce some safety and privacy rules. The drone infact can’t fly at more than 150 meters of altitude and for a range of 500 meters, furthermore it must be always visible by the pilot.

The phenomenon of the drones spread as much as to become a real sport: it’s right here that the drone race was born. Those drone’s pilots races are getting ever more audience thanks to the sparkling lights with which the drones are equipped and the sudden turns that they are able to do.

It is much more attractive than a car race, it allows to see the drones run through fields, woods, by flying over lakes, through tunnels on fire, etc.

The drive of the drones during the matches is made with special monitors or smart glasses, which allow a FPV drive (First Person View). The pilots infact can see in real time the way made by the drone.

The hacker attack to the Drone Grand Prix

It was recognised by the FAI (International Aeronautical Federation) like a sport in the 2016, in the 2017 in Lodi took place the first drone race which took the shape of italian championship. Until now many offical challenges took place in Italy, until the last one in Turin of just two weeks ago, the 12nd of July.

During the opening night, the hackers entered in the internet net to which all the drones were by avoiding the control of the pilots. Which decided to make emergency’s landings to avoid something worst. Fully under control, infact, the drones should be land on the people, or to grazing fly by risking to injure the viewers.

If it wasn’t enough on the maxiscreen of the drone race appeared the written: “The drones kill stop now“.

The Post Policy prompty start to work to find the authors. The thing that we can understand is that the hacker attack interested only the interruption on the maxiscreen with the sentence.

Infact the frequencies with which the drones and the remotes talk with each other were stopped by a device called jammer.

This is able to disturb the radio waves up to 1 Km of distance. The device is banned in Italy and in the whole European Community, because it is potentially dangerous.

The message saw to the drone race could talk about the drones used in the military field, or it could be read like a risk for the drones’ shows.

Like the one happened the day of the Turin’s patron, the 24th June, when usually we can see a night show of lighted drones that replace the traditional bon fires, abolished for two years.

This post is also available in: Italiano