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from the these-are-not-the-drones-you-are-looking-for dept.
The United States Interior Department is grounding its fleet of more than 800 drones over concerns that the Chinese is using the devices to spy or facilitate cyberattacks, according to the Wall Street Journal.
There have been growing concerns among military and Homeland Security officials that the UAVs, which are made in China or consist of Chinese-made parts, are gathering sensitive information for the Chinese government.
[...] DJI told Gizmodo in a statement that the company is "disappointed to learn of this development," adding that it has "worked with the Department of Interior to create a safe and secure drone solution that meets their rigorous requirements, which was developed over the course of 15 months with DOI officials, independent cybersecurity professionals, and experts at NASA."
[...] Last month a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced a bill aiming to block federal agencies from purchasing UAVs from China. "China has stolen sensitive drone technology from America's businesses and military for years, and now sells it back to us from a dominant position in the commercial drone market," said one of the bill's sponsors, Senator Tom Cotton, said in a statement at the time. "Relying on drones made by our adversaries is a clear risk to our national security."
US Interior Department Grounds Drone Fleet
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 01 2019, @07:50PM (1 child)
You say "anti-China FUD" with negative connotations, but you need to make a convincing case that this isn't true. The FUD argument is grounded in the well established Chinese government practice of IP theft and forced IP transfer. It has been their overt behavior for decades, which pretty much every country in the world has complained about. There is no clear separation between the government and businesses in China. And regardless of whatever whataboutisms you want to throw out there to justify their behavior, nobody trusts Chinese businesses to be independent of their government. It sucks for any Chinese business who isn't tied at the hip to the government, but that's the reality their government has put them in.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday November 01 2019, @11:10PM
Unless, of course, they are supposed to have stolen the tech to covertly send data home as well - in which case, "glass houses" probably applies since it would most likely have been from one of the Five Eyes or similar, with the NSA being the most probable original source, no? Also, as noted in my example of where the decision to ground the drones would be prudent, DJI openly *sell* a product that captures data from drones; if you're trying to covertly exfiltrate data then drawing attention to the "how" and "what" seems a pretty strange way to go about it. Aeroscope's very existence is pretty much a huge neon sign that says if you're flying drones over sensitive locations and you do not have 100% control over the content of the transmissions it's broadcasting then you deserve everything you get.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!