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# Students hack drone-because the DHS needed to know.
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/students-hack-drone-because-dhs-needed-know/
- Published: 2012-08-06T20:31:14.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T14:58:19.000Z
- Description: If thousands of armed, unmanned, and GPS-reliant drones buzzing over our borders ever seemed way too precarious to believe they were making us safer, here’s why: Researchers at the University of Texas’ Radionavigation Laboratory led by Professor Todd Humphrey took command of a UT-owned UAV, because
- Author: Kent Szlauderbach
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

If thousands of armed, unmanned, and GPS-reliant drones buzzing over our borders ever seemed way too precarious to believe they were making us safer, here’s why: Researchers at the University of Texas’ Radionavigation Laboratory led by Professor Todd Humphrey took command of a UT-owned UAV, because Department of Homeland Security thought it’d be a good time to see how easy it was, [RT reports](http://rt.com/usa/news/texas-1000-us-government-906/?ref=killscreen.com).

– – –

> After being challenged by his lab, the DHS dared Humphreys’ crew to hack into a drone and take command. Much to their chagrin, they did exactly that.  
>  
> Humphrey tells Fox News that for a few hundreds dollar his team was able to “spoof” the GPS system on board the drone, a technique that involves mimicking the actual signals sent to the global positioning device and then eventually tricking the target into following a new set of commands. And, for just $1,000, Humphreys says the spoofer his team assembled was the most advanced one ever built.  
>  
> After all, reports Newser, domestic drones are likely to use the same unencrypted GPS signals provided to civilians, allowing seemingly anyone with $1,000 and the right research to hack into the system and harness a UAV for their own personal use.

A no-brainer, surely—because on the eve of a future of airborne, domestic drone hordes, shouldn’t our capital precaution be protection from ourselves? Humphrey has a point:

> “What if you could take down one of these drones delivering FedEx packages and use that as your missile?” Humphreys asks. “That’s the same mentality the 9-11 attackers had.”