Abstract
The market for small civilian drones (unmanned aerial vehicles – UAVs) is expanding rapidly. At the same time, thanks to technological developments in connectivity, robotics, and artificial intelligence, the possibilities of use of these devices within our societies and in many productive sectors are also increasing. If on the one hand drones are an extremely useful technology for our daily life, on the other they pose numerous and heterogeneous threats to the safety of people and to the security of critical infrastructures. The peculiar characteristics of most small UAVs, such as low observability, versatility, and ease of use, make them particularly suitable for terrorist or criminal purposes. This chapter surveys the main safety and security aspects related to the improper use of small drones, cataloguing and analyzing the different typologies of threats. Starting from some relevant case studies, we inspect both the physical and cyber dangers related to such systems and discuss the main strategies and tools currently available to counter the threat. The last part of the chapter focuses on future technological developments. The relationship between drones and cybersecurity is investigated, as well as the security and ethical issues arising from the implementation of neural networks and artificial intelligence software.
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Crippa, P. (2020). Cyber Security and Drones. In: Masys, A.J. (eds) Handbook of Security Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51761-2_60-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51761-2_60-1
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