A hack-proof drone has been unveiled by the Pentagon’s research wing tasked with creating breakthrough technologies for America’s national security needs.
High Assurance Cyber Military Systems (HACMS) is a new program used by the drones to prevent cyberattacks, the military blog Defense Tech reported Wednesday. The technology, which was developed for the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA), has been in the works for years, Kathleen Fischer, HACMS program manager, told the website.
“The software is designed to make sure a hacker cannot take over control of a [Unmanned Aerial System]. The software is mathematically proven to be invulnerable to large classes of attack,” Ms. Fisher told Defense Tech.
“Many things have computers inside and those computers are networked to talk to other things,” she continued. “Whenever you have that situation, you have the possibility for remote vulnerabilities where somebody can use the network connection to take over and get the device to do what the attacker wants instead of what the owner wants.”
In its test runs, the new drone was able to stump numerous hackers who tried to take over the UAS.
The Pentagon believes the new technology, which originated at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington, will also be applicable to many other platforms.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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