Amazon Patent Describes System for Detecting ‘Hostile Takeover’ of Drones

Amazon Technologies got a U.S. patent Tuesday for a method and system of detecting the “hostile takeover” of drones and returning them to friendly hands. As use of commercial and recreational drones increases, "so does the likelihood” of hostile takeovers, whether stealing drones and “payloads,” intentionally crashing them or otherwise causing “disruption” of operations, said the patent, based on an August 2016 application and naming Glen Larsen, an Amazon hardware and systems architect, as its only inventor. “Using these attacks, nefarious individuals and/or systems may be able to obtain control” of the drones by hacking the communication signals being sent to and from them, it said. Such attacks could cause the drones “to operate unsafely and could also result in considerable financial loss for their operators,” it said. It envisions a system for a drone to operate in two “modes.” During normal-operating “mission” mode, the drone receives a “heartbeat signal from a controller,” it said. If a preset timer expires without the drone receiving a new heartbeat signal because it was hacked, the drone automatically switches into a “safety” mode in which it “performs one or more preprogrammed actions designed to reestablish communication with the controller,” or lands in a “safe location,” said the patent.