"}The failed assassination of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro is a game changer.
The August 4th attack\n was the first known attempt to assassinate a head of state with a \ndrone. It will not be the last. There will be more of these kinds of \nattacks, and some of them may hit their mark.
Much of the commentary following the drone attack\n on Maduro focused on how it demonstrated the weakness of his \ngovernment. While this may be true, the attempted assassination by drone\n is not necessarily evidence of this fact. Even the strongest and best \nresourced governments and militaries may soon be struggling to prevent \nattacks by DIY unmanned transport on both their leadership and the \npublic.
It remains unclear who carried out the\n attack on Maduro. However, the Venezuelan government has arrested six \nindividuals and has accused a wealthy Venezuelan businessman living in \nMiami of financing it. Furthermore, it\u2019s clear that those who targeted \nMaduro used two commercially available drones manufactured by DJI\n that had been modified to carry C4 plastic explosives. The $5,000 \nprofessional-grade drones can carry a 13-pound payload and have a range \nof three miles.
The first of the two drones used in \nthe attempted assassination exploded above a parade ground less than 100\n yards from where Maduro was speaking. In a video of the attack, Maduro,\n his wife, and the military brass standing around him look up as the \ndrone comes into view. Moments later, the explosion can be heard. A \nsecond drone exploded three blocks away from the parade ground. Seven \nsoldiers were injured in the attack.
It is unclear why the drones failed to\n get any closer to the president. The Venezuelan security services may \nhave been using anti-drone technology, but the first one did get within a\n hundred yards of the president. Video of the first explosion shows that\n Maduro\u2019s security detail is slow to react even after the drone is \nspotted. It is only after the explosion that his bodyguards surround \nhim. This may point to a lack of preparedness on the part of his \nsecurity detail, but it also highlights a growing problem with drones: \nthey are becoming more and more common in urban areas and are \nincreasingly used by media companies to capture aerial footage. They may\n have not assumed cause for alarm, at least not at first.
Small off-the-shelf drones can now be \nseen flying around many cities and parks. Some belong to enthusiasts \nwhich run the gamut from children with a new toy to men and women who \nspend thousands of dollars on fast and nimble technology. Others, some \nof which are very similar to the drones used to target Maduro, are \noperated by local police, fire departments, and other emergency response\n services as well as many commercial enterprises. And soon, there will \nbe drones delivering packages, fast food, and even medicines. In a few \nyears drones may well be ubiquitous in the skies above major cities \nwhere they will carry out a multiplicity of tasks. Far more than now, \nthey will go unnoticed by the public.
As these flying machines become a part\n of our everyday lives they will also become more of a threat. With what\n is likely to be hundreds if not thousands of drones in the skies above \nmajor cities, the opportunities for terrorists and militants to make use\n of them will only increase.\u00a0
Even the most secure and advanced can \nbe hacked, as was demonstrated by the Iranians hacking one of the United\n States\u2019 most advanced and stealthy drones\u2014which was then top-secret and\n called RQ-170\u2014in December 2011. The Iranians hacked the drone\u2019s GPS \nsignal and then landed it in Iran. Commercial, private, and emergency \nresponse drones are unlikely to be as secure as those drones used by the\n U.S. government. Many of these could easily be targeted by hackers and \nused to carry out acts of terrorism.
Apart from the danger from hackers, \nthe idea that drones will become \u201cnormal\u201d is a real fear. It will be \nvery hard for individuals and government security services to \ndistinguish between the drone dropping off a package and one that is \ndropping a bomb. A hacked or modified drone can easily join other drones\n in what drone manufacturers are calling \u201cdrone corridors.\u201d These \ncorridors will be highways in the sky for what will be a dizzying array \nof drones designed to carry out different tasks. How will these \ncorridors be patrolled? How will these drones be secured against \nhacking? How will governments begin to deal with threats from drones \nthat already range from the size of insects to small aircraft?
Drone technology, and more \nimportantly, the artificial intelligence that drives them are both \ndeveloping at such a pace that what is state of the art today will be \noutdated within a year. The drones that were used to target Maduro are \nprimitive compared with what will soon be on the market. Yet, one of \nthem came very close to injuring, if not killing, a head of state. The \ntwo drones used in the attack on Maduro required controllers, were not \nstealthy, and had limited range. In the near future, commercially \navailable drones will not suffer from any of these limitations.
In response to the attack on Maduro, \nIrish authorities charged with protecting Pope Francis during his recent\n visit to Ireland raced to deploy the latest anti-drone technology to \nprotect the pontiff from aerial threats. Just as drone technology is \ndeveloping at a breakneck pace so is the technology that prevents them \nfrom being used to carry out attacks. However, this is a race that will \nlikely be lost as drones become far more common, faster, and ever more \ncapable thanks to the artificial intelligence that will guide them.