The NYPD announced its Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) program, which will be comprised of newly acquired Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), or drones, and the licensed NYPD officers of the Technical Assistance Response Unit (TARU) who will operate them.
Smart city leaders are rightfully concerned about cybersecurity. Securing smart digital cities with millions of IOT devices from rogue actors with easy access to Internet connections anywhere in the world requires constant vigilant effort. Unfortunately, away from all the headlines of cybersecurity lies a new, but equally concerning threat: rogue actors with easy access to inexpensive drones that can violate individual privacy, menace citizenry in public spaces, and deliver contraband or even lethal payloads.
The Trump administration urged Congress this week to give it new powers to disable or destroy threatening drones. According to Reuters, written testimony from David Glawe, undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at DHS, and Hayley Chang, DHS deputy general counsel, said that “terrorist groups overseas use drones to conduct attacks on the battlefield and continue to plot to use them in terrorist attacks elsewhere. This is a very serious, looming threat that we are currently underprepared to confront.”
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is bolstering its risk mitigation stance with drones and armed security, hoping to prevent a mass attack like the Las Vegas shooting last October.
When confronting a drone (Unmanned Air Vehicle/Unmanned Air System) operating in or around their area of responsibility in an unsafe manner, most people would like to bring it down immediately. Unfortunately, in most situations, it is unlawful to interfere with the flight path of a drone. The most important response that can be done legally is detection.
