Drones for Fun and Profit

7/29/2019 Drones for Fun and Profit

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DronesForFunAndProfit:

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Expectimpactonyourinfrastructure

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Domestic Drones: Expect Impacts on your IT Infrastructure

Domestic drone use has been in the spotlight lately

as pundits, journalists, and politicians debate and

discuss the possibility of launching strikes against

Americans at home. Much more likely, however, is

the productive use of drones without weapons or

even surveillance equipment. Although the military

and law enforcement are the only authorized users

of drones (with businesses barred from using

unmanned aerial vehicles domestically), the

Federal Aviation Administration hopes to begin

issuing private drone licenses by 2015. Though

there are still many technical, legal, privacy, andsafety issues that need to be resolved before

private drones become commonplace, UAVs have

the potential to generate more fun and profit than threat for individuals and industry.

Domestic Drone Use Cases

Drones have begun to be featured prominently in cinema, but they can play an even more

crucial role in creating it. This is why the Motion Picture Association of America is currently one

of the organizations pushing hardest for domestic drone for shooting aerial scenes. Usingunmanned aerial vehicles is safer, cheaper, and can be more effective at close range than

traditional methods such as cranes or helicopters. Not only could drones film other aircraft with

less risk of collision, but they can also follow rapidly moving action on the ground, and have

been used in both applications abroad.

Another promising use for private drones is in

agriculture. Large agricultural companies such as

Monsanto are now championing the use of

unmanned systems, whether aerial or on theground, to collect data on vast fields of crops,

thereby reducing personnel costs. Drones can

reduce the cost of managing large plots of land in

other ways as well by taking over functions such as

crop dusting.

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Drones are also being explored as a tool for

journalism. While professional journalists are currently

barred from using unmanned aerial vehicles for their

stories, the University of Missouri and University of

Nebraska both offer courses on drone reporting in

anticipation of changing laws and practices. Dronescan fulfill similar functions in journalism as they do in

filmography, providing pictures or video of hard to

reach or dangerous sites. They can also take

measurements and gather data safely, cheaply, and

effectively.

Not all potential uses of private, domestic drones are

pragmatic, however. Sometimes, drones are simply

fun. As robots and unmanned aerial systems growcheaper, they are finding expanded recreational use. Most drones are, after all, advanced

versions of the radio controlled airplanes, helicopters, and cars. This trend has extended into

low cost personal quadcopters with novel applications such as the Joggobot, which tracks and

follows runners using a symbol on their shirts. Like most personal drones, however, the

Joggobot still has a ways to go and is plagued by battery life and airspeed issues. Still,

diminishing complexity through simpler controls, autopilot assistance, and greater technical

resilience in case of inevitable crashes or botched landings, along with dropping prices as

unmanned systems become commodity technology, make recreational drones increasingly

feasible toys and gadgets.

Domestic Drone Policy Issues

Technical issues aside, however, private drones still

face sizable policy and legal hurdles in the United

States. There are a number of safety and privacy issues

that need to be resolved before individuals and

corporations can operate their own drones or reporters

can use UAVs to break a story. From a purely practicalperspective, though drones are unmanned they are still

vehicles that may require skilled pilots and can do

significant damage in a crash, necessitating licensing

and safety regulations. Drones with recording

equipment also bring about warranted surveillance

concerns as they expand private citizens means of

spying and challenge reasonable expectations of

privacy that determine legal and acceptable behavior. If, for example, it is acceptable to see

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over a fence, is it also fair to take pictures of your

neighbors backyard from the sky? Such questions

need to be resolved before personal drones can be

widely accepted.

Laws governing private drones, which forbid

businesses and journalists from operating UAVs and

contain many gray areas for citizens, are now rapidly

evolving. The FAA intends to clarify regulations

concerning private drones by the end of the year and

begin issuing drone licenses by 2015, though the

specifics of that process are not yet available. Still,

these proposed changes carry tremendous potential.

The FAA expects that as many as 30,000 dronesmay be flying domestically by the end of the decade

and that the domestic drone market could be worth $90 billion.

This rapid growth will undoubtedly scare drone skeptics who associate unmanned aerial

vehicles with the War on Terrorism, targeted killing, and surveillance. Profitable, productive, and

lighthearted uses for private, domestic drones outnumber their military and law enforcement

applications, however, especially if we can learn to separate the policy from the platform. As the

utility of private remotely piloted systems outweighs diminishing legal and ethical concerns, the

only question that remains is how can we use drones most safely, effectively, and enjoyably?

Domestic Drones and the IT Department

IT professionals in enterprises throughout the

country should make an important assumption.

Assume you are the team that will be responsible

for moving data from your organizations drones

to the users of that data. Furthermore, assume

that you will be the ones called on to store thatdata, index it, search across it and provide

advanced analytical tools to make sense over it.

Additionally, there is a very high likelihood that

the IT department will be the team called to

repair the drone when something goes wrong.

IT professionals will also be called on to

establish security protocols and procedures for

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drone data, including ways to ensure the drones are programmed correctly and controlled in

secure paths, but also ensuring that the information the drones collect is moved to the users in

an encrypted way.

What Should IT Professionals Do About The Coming Wave of

Domestic Drones?

Perhaps the most important thing that IT professionals should do regarding domestic drones is

to inject yourself into the planning process for your mission area. You will know better than most

the questions that need to be asked at an early stage in a new architecture. Your insights into

the lifecycle management of secure information will be important inputs that can inform the

actions any planner is considering in this space.

Questions IT professionals should ask regarding Drones

Will the communications to and from the drone be encrypted? How? Who will manage

the keys?

How will we ensure that only authorized users fly and can control the drone?

Will data be pre-processed on the drone? Will it be compressed before transmission?

What protocols will the data transfer us? Are they optimized for high data rates?

Where will the data from the drone be stored? How long will it be stored? What is its

value to our mission? How will we prepare the data for further analysis?

Will we use automated information extraction tools against the data?

What support contracts will we have in place to maintain the IT onboard the drone and in

the ground station?


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More Reading

For more federal technology and policy issues visit:

CTOvision.com- A blog for enterprise technologists with a special focus on Big Data.

CTOlabs.com - A reference for research and reporting on all IT issues.

FedCyber.com Focused on federal cyber security

J.mp/ctonews - Sign up for technology newsletters including the Security Technology Weekly.

About the AuthorsBob Gourleyhas been active in the cyber defense community since 1998, specializing in intelligence

support to cyber operations. He is CTO and founder of Crucial Point LLC and editor and chief of

CTOvision.comHe is a former federal CTO. His career included service in operational intelligence centers

around the globe where his focus was operational all source intelligence analysis. He was the first

director of intelligence at DoDs Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense, served as director of

technology for a division of Northrop Grumman and spent three years as the CTO ofthe Defense

Intelligence Agency. Bob serves on numerous government and industry advisoryboards. Contact Bob at

[email protected]

Alex Olesker is is a technology research analyst focused on disruptive technologies of use to the nations most

significant missions. Alex is a graduate of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown

University with a degree in Science, Technology and International Affairs. He researches and writes on

developments in technology and government best practices for CTOvision.com and CTOlabs.com

For More Information

If you have questions or would like to discuss this report, please contact me. As an advocate forbetter IT use

in enterprises I am committed to keeping this dialogue up open on technologies, processes and best practices

that will keep us all continually improving our capabilities andability to support organizational missions.

CTOlabs.com

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Drones for Fun and Profit