This week in drone news: An update to the DJI data leak that’s been going on for years. A Canadian police drone collides with a Police Helicopter. Pix4D releases a new photogrammetry cloud service: Pix4Dcloud and Pix4Dcloud Advanced. And finally a Pilot Institute update: we reach 20,000 students and 36,000 enrollments, all thanks to you! 

Summary

00:42 - DJI Data Leaks: real or not?

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Script/Links

DJI Data Leaks: real or not? 

A report from Booz Allen, an IT consulting company, was released this week regarding the long-debated possible data security issues from DJI drones. 

The report was prepared for PrecisionHawk, a commercial drone and data company. 

Booz Allen tested risk assessments of possible vulnerabilities for 3 drones: the Government Edition Mavic Pro, Matrice 600, and the Mavic 2 Enterprise. 

The testing did not identify data connections made by the drone platforms to DJI or Chinese servers.

They did identify potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited or triggered by a threat source. 

The attacker would need to have physical access to the drone itself, or be within direct radio range during specific operations. 

The vulnerabilities were provided to DJI who said they mitigated several of them and will address the rest shortly. 

The report also said that “vulnerabilities will exist to some degree regardless of the UAS platform”. 

https://www.precisionhawk.com/blog/unmanned-aerial-intelligence-technology-center-of-excellence-conducts-risk-assessment-of-drone-technology

When a police drone collides with a police helicopter

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police AS350 helicopter collided with a SkyRanger R60 drone earlier in February but was only reported in June. 

The two aircraft were on a joint mission in British Columbia when the accident happen. 

It was classified as a midair collision, which happened at 300 feet AGL.

No one was hurt and the helicopter did a precautionary landing on a road nearby. 

Damage was found on the helicopter to the main rotor blades and the tail boom and rotor. 

The drone itself was destroyed and with has a listing price of $100,000, it’s an expensive lesson. 

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/police-helicopter-collides-with-police-drone/