DHS warns of 'strong concerns' that Chinese-made drones are stealing data

[JAW]

Thoughts? Particularly what steps DJI says are easily done by the user to prevent data theft.

DHS warns of 'strong concerns' that Chinese-made drones are stealing data | CNN Politics

Chinese-made drones may be sending sensitive flight data to their manufacturers in China, where it can be accessed by the government there, the US Department of Homeland Security warned in an alert issued Monday obtained by CNN.

www.cnn.com

 

[AMann]

Already posted in news forum... but the title above is more descriptive.

 

[Thomas B]

Questions:
What sensitive flight data that can’t be obtained using Google Earth, and FAA databases by anyone?
Without reading, and understanding the entire. programming code used, who can really say there is a linking of data to DJI or not, despite the user options?
Now that the U.S. military doesn’t use DJI, what exactly is the nature of the “sensitive data”?

My initial take is unnecessary reporting by CNN, regardless of truth, to increase circulation and drumming up antidrone sentiment.

Let’s see what others know for sure and/or think about the action

 

[Prismatic]

Political pot-stirring, nothing more.

 

[xman1]

Hardly. Put an app sniffer on your phone and you will be shocked. I firewalled them ages ago.

With that said, there is a lot of information that can be gleaned from the average citizen. You are very much of interest to a foreign government. They will spy on anyone they can and they want to know everything about every person and every location they can. Every enemy does this around the world, and make no mistake, they are an enemy. It is not a matter of if, but when we trade blows, likely over Taiwan as the trigger.

Typical response is... So what? What do they care about me? Answer: Everyone touches something of interest to them in a war and they will seek to manipulate that if they can. Besides, they would like to put a social score on every citizen of the world, so better start behaving!

Edit: I traced some data to the main Chinese telecom. Why is it sending my data to major Chinese telecoms? Only reason is, that is where the Chinese gov hoovers data. This is likely where the data loss occurs.

 

[brett8883]

Hardly. Put an app sniffer on your phone and you will be shocked. I firewalled them ages ago.

With that said, there is a lot of information that can be gleaned from the average citizen. You are very much of interest to a foreign government. They will spy on anyone they can and they want to know everything about every person and every location they can. Every enemy does this around the world, and make no mistake, they are an enemy. It is not a matter of if, but when we trade blows, likely over Taiwan as the trigger.

Typical response is... So what? What do they care about me? Answer: Everyone touches something of interest to them in a war and they will seek to manipulate that if they can. Besides, they would like to put a social score on every citizen of the world, so better start behaving!

This is exactly right but this discussion never ends well so let’s just all agree to disagree here. Some people don’t care about their privacy and that’s ok

 

[runeOfRune]

Hardly. Put an app sniffer on your phone and you will be shocked. I firewalled them ages ago.

What did you capture, given how the commmunication is over SSL (so, encrypted)? Can you attach a packet log?

 

[Thomas B]

I not only have a sniffer, but one with a blocker
But still don’t see answers relative to the drone questions I posted in#4 above. Sorry to be dogmatic, but want to stay on topic.

So just to reiterate...
Questions:
What sensitive flight data that can’t be obtained using Google Earth, and FAA databases by anyone?
Without reading, and understanding the entire. programming code used, who can really say there is a linking of data to DJI or not, despite the user options?
Now that the U.S. military doesn’t use DJI, what exactly is the nature of the “sensitive data”?

My initial take is unnecessary reporting by CNN, regardless of truth, to increase circulation and drumming up antidrone sentiment.

 

[macoman]

What sensitive info Chinese can obtain from me when I fly over a field? Maybe if the government bought it, them yes it can be dangerous.

 

[runeOfRune]

Without reading, and understanding the entire. programming code used, who can really say there is a linking of data to DJI or not, despite the user options?

Anyone who knows how to read decompiled smali code. All knowledge necessary is available online, complete with a tutorial on how to decompile Android apps to smali, and a complete smali instruction set. It's pretty similar to assembly so if you have experience with 8086 you should be fine from the get-go.

(source: I may have hacked some apps to remove ads and stuff).

 

[xman1]

What did you capture, given how the commmunication is over SSL (so, encrypted)? Can you attach a packet log?

Just what it is communicating with. The app contacts about 50 sites while in use. This was one of them. I think I put a screenshot of that capture on this forum ages ago.

 

[runeOfRune]

Just what it is communicating with. The app contacts about 50 sites while in use. This was one of them. I think I put a screenshot of that capture on this forum ages ago.

So, what exactly does it send to those sites? Because you can't guess it just from the fact it contacts something. It's like a telephone, you can't tell the contents of a call just by knowing the destination number. It's like seeing Alice is calling Bob and extrapolating from that piece of info that Bob must be a foreign spy.

What probably happens is, the app is sending usage statistics and analytics data, just like pretty much any app nowadays. But hey, I'm gonna install it on my regular phone and see for myself.

 

[xman1]

If you give me a bit, I can capture what it contacts. I will enable the packet sniffer next time I fly, bit I think it encrypted.

As for chattyness as compared to other apps, this one probably takes the cake.

 

[xman1]

I can't fit all the sites on screen, but this should give you an idea. The list just keeps on going and going like the energizer bunny:

 

[BigAl07]

Thank you for your contribution but this topic is already going over at:

Oh boy... we are all flying spy drones! DHS warns of 'strong concerns'

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/05/20/politics/dhs-chinese-drone-warning/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F If you work in an infrastructure facility, it’s time to also yell “drone!”

mavicpilots.com

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