Analyzing Security Issues of Using Drones (UAVs) in Smart Cities

This report examines the security issues associated with using drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs) as base stations to provide wireless coverage in smart cities, particularly in the context of 5G technology. It discusses the potential benefits of drones in providing internet access to remote areas and enhancing wireless coverage, referencing projects by Google and Facebook. However, it also highlights the vulnerabilities of drones to hacking and other security threats. The report outlines a proposed lab experiment to demonstrate the ease with which drones can be hacked and controlled, emphasizing the need for improved security measures. It addresses research questions about the advantages and disadvantages of using drones in smart cities and their potential for regular use, concluding with a review of existing literature on drone security and related topics. Desklib provides access to similar past papers and solved assignments for students.

Running head: THE SECURITY ISSUES OF USING DRONE
The Security Issues of Using Drone
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..................................................................................................5
Aims and Objectives..................................................................................................5
Primary Aim:..............................................................................................................5
Secondary aim:...........................................................................................................6
Research questions:....................................................................................................6
Scope of the study:.....................................................................................................6
Justification................................................................................................................7
Significance of the study:...........................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Literature review..........................................................................................8
Introduction:...............................................................................................................8
Previous research works:............................................................................................8
Security issues of using drone in smart cities............................................................8
Drones (UAVs) as Base Station.................................................................................9
Problem associated with Drones (UAVs)................................................................10
Future direction of using drone................................................................................13
Rules and regulations of drone (UAVs)...................................................................16
Chapter 3: Research Methodology:..............................................................................18
Introduction..................................................................................................................18
Research approach:..................................................................................................19
Data collection method:...........................................................................................20
Ethical and practical considerations.........................................................................20

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Chapter 4: Summery....................................................................................................20
Work plan.....................................................................................................................22
References....................................................................................................................24

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Abstract
An unmanned Ariel vehicle or the UAVS also known as the drone are expected to
play a major role in communication in smart cities in the near future especially in the next
generation of mobile wireless (5G). 5G expected by launch in early 2020 and drone will be
used to boost the wireless coverage and hotspot for mobile phone. As already drones
involving in many services, in surveillance, managing traffic, border monitoring, and other
security applications for example in Australia a book company called ZOOKAL already
using drones to deliver books to customers.
Google loon’s project has already conducted several trails in testing flying balloons
which provides internet connection to remote access areas for providing free access of
internet in the times of the natural disaster as humanitarian help, the results were huge
success. Similarly Facebook have also performed various testing in the Arizona desert at
United Stated, using the drone as a base station, conducting several trials testing. The aim of
the project was to offer an affordable internet connection to the unserved, and deserted areas.
Both Google and Facebook has proven that is possible to rely on drone (UAVs) to serve as
base station to provide internet services to remote access and when the infrastructure
damaged by the unexpected events or if there is no possible way of having a base station.
In this proposal specification I will provide an overview about the nature of the
project. Hence I will be conducting a lab experiment using a DJI Phantom Drone, Controller
with an Android mobile device, and Lab-Sat for GPS simulator, and Mac-Pro laptop, the aim
is to use the hacking tools for performing attacks on the drone equipped with camera flying
on the lab and to hack the drone and take full control of it. The duration of the project should
take 15 weeks to complete.

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Chapter 1: Introduction
This research is about evaluating and understanding the process of hacking a drone
using simple gadgets used from a lab and to take full control of the device using some
techniques and sitting in a lab. The paper also focuses on the importance of such drones in the
areas of natural disaster and the area where it is not possible to provide internet connection.
The paper also focuses on the concept how the use of the drones for providing internet can
help in the smart cities. Drones (UAVs) has captured an interest of many researches
especially in using drones as base station to provide a hotspot for Mobile phone and wireless
coverage in smart cities in 5G next generation wireless mobile. Google and Facebook have
performed test on drones and balloon to provide internet service for rural and remote access
areas also it covers the ideas whether the people living in a smart city will accept the use of
the drones for various purposes like the delivery of the goods and the internet. There are also
provided some of the drawbacks of the drones that can affect the normal activity of the
drones like for example hacking. Understanding the vulnerability of the drones is one of the
major concerns of the researchers in these days. This proposal shall contain the manner and
purpose of data protection, principles of data protection, superiority of data protection.
Further the importance of the use of the drones whether can help in the modern day wireless
technology is also a part of this paper. A large number of international organisations like the
Google, Facebook and other organisation s are also researching in this matter as this is one of
the major project of the future.
Aims and Objectives
The aims of this research are as follows:

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Aim:
The primary aim of the research is to identify the network topology for the project. Further
the need to identify the network topology for the project is also a part if the research. The
analysis and to identify software to monitor background traffic and collect data. The
Secondary aims are to investigate the security and privacy in smart cities, to investigate the
problem associated with drones (UAVs), to identify whether drone (UAVs) could be used for
wireless coverage in future or not.
Research questions:
The following are some of the questions that will be answered in the following paper.
1. What are the advantages of the using the drones?
2. What are some of the major disadvantages of drone?
3. How drones can help in the smart cities in regular use?
Scope of the study:
The scope of this study is to get the basic knowledge of the project scope change and
the impact of the objectives in the society. The main focus is on the hacking the drone and
using it for the purpose of the hacker that is bringing out the major risks of such bots and the
how these can be mad more efficient and advanced in order to make things more secure.
Justification
This topic has been chosen because of the factor that in the modern day world the use
of the technology is one of the major factor that has been influencing many researchers for
developing new and advanced technology. The use of the drones in the modern day has not
only helped the people in accessing internet connections where it was never possible to
access like the deserts of the Arizona. The drones are proving to be one of the major
technology that is being developed but there are some of the consequences of this. The

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research aims to bring out the vulnerabilities like hacking of the drones and taking the control
of the same. This type of research is not done in the past and hence will provide some of the
key outcomes for the purpose of study.
Significance of the study:
The study will help to bring out the major reasons why to use the drones for the
objectives, how can it help in the process of the making the drones more secure and
advanced. Also the study will play a major role in understanding the concept of using the
drones for the purpose of providing internet connections in the smart cities.

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Chapter 2: Literature review
Introduction:
In this section, the paper will explore the security issues of using drones or the UAVs
as base station to provide wireless coverage in smart cities, the vulnerability of drones, the
future direction of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs), and the rules & regulations.
Scholarly paper and articles will be reviewed to get the substantive ideas and findings of the
topic of project scope management.There were various researches conducted in similar area
which it can be used as back, but first we need to define the problem associated with using
drone (UAVs) in smart cities. Also this paper will include the process by which the data is
to be collected for the justifications of the claims made in this paper.
Previous research works:
IT has been observed that there are various recherché have been made for the purpose
of understanding the concept of the unmanned Ariel drones. Also there has been a substantial
amount of research have been done in order for understanding the concept of the use of the
drones for the betterment and implementation on the IOT of the smart cities. But there are
some of the major problems in the UAD’s like the hacking. According to researches done by
Edwin Vattapparamban the drones uses the Wi-Fi for the controlling purpose and
professional drones can easily be hijacked because of the fact that the signals in these systems
are not encrypted and hence does not provide any firewall against any attack. One of the
examples that is given by the Edwin Vattapparamban is the Skyjack software, using this it
one can easily access any drone in the perimeter of the software.
Security issues of using drone in smart cities
In recent year we have witnessed drone Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has
become widely available and very much cheaper to purchase. (Vattapparamban, E et al 2016)

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Drones expected to play a major role in smart cities in future, and the drones are already
involve in many services like surveillance, providing internet, delivery process and in some
cases providing security in smart cities. However use of drones possess a threat to areas of
safety, privacy and security. As we already know that use of drones can be beneficial to smart
cities, but also can a malicious entity to either cyber or physical attacks. The increased
number of the drones in smart cities will make it harder to distinguish and identify between
legitimate drone and malicious one. Study conducted by Giray & Saint Murat Giray (2013)
on Anatomy of UAVs hijacking warning about the threat because if a successful attack on
drones’ performed it could result of obtaining vital information. According to BBC (British
Broadcasting Corporation) gangs managed to smuggled drugs, mobile phone and a prohibited
item into a prisons in several cities in UK. That also added another concern to the smart cities
inhabitants.
Drones (UAVs) as Base Station
Drones (UAVs) are expected to be dominant in the sky of smart cities to provide
various services, (Vattapparamban, E et al 2016) especially in connectivity as many of the
researches suggested that drones will serving as flying Base Station providing Mobile Hot-
Spot, and Broadband wireless access. Akarsu, A, and Girici, T (2017) with the advancement
of the technology, drones will be used as base station to improve connectivity and to support
the next generation of wireless network. As we know that drones are already in uses in
different security applications in smart cities and it would be an advantage to use drone to
cover network gaps. Several researchers focused on studying drones (UAVs) to be used as
base station in future (Khan, et al 2017, Fotouhi A 2017, Girici, T 2017) drone expected to be
flying base station in future especially in 5G (Fifth Generation of Mobile wireless
technology) to support massive connectivity.

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Problem associated with Drones (UAVs)
Previously drones (UAVs) were only used by military for various task, such as
surveillance, reconnaissance, information gathering, other military purposes
(Vattapparamban, E et al 2016). With the time recently we have noticed increased number of
drones and very rapidly especially in commercial use (Williams, D 2015). The DHL
(German-Logistic-Company), and Amazon have recently lunch new method of delivery using
drone for package delivery. Currently in Australia a textbook company called ZOOKAL is
already using drones to deliver books. However, the increased number of the drones in smart
cities in future will come up with difficult challenges, especially in public safety, airspace. A
study conducted by (Wright, A 2015) the uses of drones in future will cause major concern to
public safety, cybersecurity, and privacy.
An experiment conducted by a group of researchers (Javaid, A et al 2012, Vishal, D et
al 2017) have identified various path to exploit the vulnerabilities in drones in order to take
full control, an attack can be launch from a distance to drones by software called Skyjack. It
seeks for a drones wirelessly in order to hack and take full control within the respected
distance of the Wi-Fi range and turn them into zombies. Vishal indicated that drones are
extremely harmless if, it uses properly, and it can cause catastrophic damage to airplane and
result in serious personal injury. Vishal and team performed cracking DJI SDK active attack
to Phantom Drone in order to remove authentication between drone and DJI server, which
located on the Android mobile phone. The attack was successful, it resulted in the of
changing portion of the software coding the SDK, they managed to gain root access of the
drone and took total control of it. Also they performed De-authentication attack as is shown
in Fig1 which allow them to captured background traffic without connecting to the drone.
Furthermore, they managed to successful lunch attack on drone process which it governs the

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whole system of the flight control, by telnet command (dragon-prog) they are able to stop the
wing immediately resulting in drone fall down on the ground.
Fig1 De-authentication attack on a drone
(Source: Vattapparamban, E et al 2016).
Vishal and team performed various hacking techniques to find out the vulnerability
such as Network Mapping (Nmap) command to show number of open ports and which
services are running on the drone, also found that the drone using open WiFi IEEE 802.1AC
unencrypted to allow which make it easier to hack drone. (Giray, S, and Giray 2013) lack
of encryption on board of drones especially in GPS signal spoofing attack results in success
in losing control to malicious attackers. Giray to hack a drone is not a simple task it requires
knowledge of hacking tools; they have detailed the steps on how to exploit vulnerabilities (Al
Barghuthi et al. 2017).

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Fig 2 DJI phantom 3 drone equip with camera.
(Source: Amazon 2018)
The experiment conducted on a Phantom drone as it shown below on fig3 with
controller, and LabSet which is a GPS attack based on the navigation system and the lack of
encryption in civilian drone, the drone can be spoofed easily (Apvrille, Roudier and Tanzi,
2015). The labSet allow them to spoof falsify signal forcing the drone to synchronize with
attacker signal, and they able to deny legitimate signal and moved the drone from it path to
attacker direction.