Drone News: DJI Data Breach, FAA Auth Extended, AirData Public Portal, Ohio DOT Drone Surveillance

Welcome to your weekly UAS news update, we have 4 stories for you this week: DJI Data breach, FAA Authorization extended, AirData creates public portal for government transparency, and Ohio DOT to use drones for traffic surveillance.

First up this week is supposed DJI data breach that turned out to be a complex scam. The “Mogilevich” group claimed online to have hacked DJI and had a one-terabyte database of information including prototypes and blueprints of new products. At least one person or group paid for the non-existent database at a price of $85,000. The scammers then posted their scam online saying “Now the real question is? Why confess all this when we could just run away? This was done to illustrate the process of our scam, We don't think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that.” To be clear, DJI has not been hacked, the “hack” was instead a scam to convince people to pay for the non-existent data. We’ll keep you updated if we see anything else about this. https://dronexl.co/2024/03/04/hacker-mogilevich-scam-drone-maker-dji/ Second this week, the FAA has gotten another extension in funding until May 10th, 2024. This is the third extension since the 2018 Reauthorization Act ran out in September of 2023. The US House Of Representatives passed a bill to reauthorize the FAA for the next 5 years back in July of 2023, but the US Senate has yet to come to any agreement on FAA Reauthorization. We’ll have to wait and see if this is another “Kicking the can down the road” fix or if we’ll get a 5 year reauthorization. https://generalaviationnews.com/2024/03/05/faa-reauthorization-extended-yet-again-2/ Next this week, AirData has released their “Public Portal”. The Public Portal is an integrated product for public safety agencies to publish where drone operations occurred within a city or municipality. The publishing of these flights allows law enforcement agencies to be transparent about their operations after the operations have occurred. Flights are filtered automatically to protect confidentiality and a department can tailor what data is released to their needs. According to AirData, a number of major police departments have assisted with the design and development of the Public Portal including Chula Vista PD, Las Vegas Metro PD, and Sacramento PD. For more information, check out AirData’s website. Last up, the Ohio Department of Transportation will be using what appears to be a Censys Sentaero for traffic surveillance along US 33. Along with the purchase of the Sentaero, the DOT has gotten approval for a BVLOS waiver and an OOP waiver, allowing the drone to be operated over people and traffic beyond line of sight. Specific safety mitigations are not listed in article nor were they available on the Ohio DOT’s website. It’s unclear when the traffic surveillance operations will begin, but the drone will also be used for a number of other operations including GIS operations, mapping, emergency management, and construction monitoring. Another innovative use of UAS! https://www.10tv.com/article/news/local/ohio/odot-to-launch-drone-on-us-route-33/530-1485ea6d-e289-403f-86ed-dc418c306fd8 https://drive.ohio.gov/programs/aam/uas Alright, that’s it, have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week on Monday for the live!