![]() Parrot did not respond to request for comment, but the BBC notes that, “experts said Parrot appeared to have ignored well-known guidelines” to prevent this kind of hack. “How fun would it be to take over drones carrying Amazon packages…or take over any other drones, and make them my little zombie drones. The drones can even be forced to self-deactivate and drop out of the sky. Then, he wrote software (which he made available on the open-source website GitHub, for anyone to use) that he says allows his drone to find wireless signals of other Parrot drones in the area and disconnect the wireless connection of another drone’s original user, giving Kamkar-or any user with the software-control over both drones. Kamkar equipped his drone with a battery, a wireless transmitter, and a Raspberry Pi computer-the total of which costs about $400, including the drone. Kamkar’s hack, also known as “Skyjack,” was performed on a Parrot AR Drone 2 (More than 500,000 Parrot drones have been sold since 2010, and it’s been used to help collected flight data for the European Space Agency.) It’s unknown what kind of drone Amazon will end up using, but these drones have high-definition photo and video, a flying range of about 165 feet, and can be controlled using an iPhone or an iPad. “I’m sure that with most of the drones out there, if you scrutinize the security, you’ll find some kind of vulnerability.” Kamkar says that the Amazon announcement was an opportunity to point out that drone security has room for improvement. “I’ve been playing with drones for a few years,” Kamkar, who is based in Los Angeles, tells Mother Jones. With enough hacks, a user can allegedly control an entire zombie drone army capable of flying in any direction, taking video of your house, or committing mass drone-suicide. And he claims that he found one within 24 hours and promptly exploited it: America, meet the zombie drone that Kamkar says hunts, hacks, and takes over nearby drones. He knew that whenever new technology, like drones, becomes popular quickly, there are bound to be security flaws. When 27-year-old Samy Kamkar-a security researcher who famously made one million Myspace friends in a single day-heard the announcement on Sunday that Amazon was planning to start delivering packages via drone in 2015, he had an idea. ![]() Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
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