Drones: Architecture, Vulnerabilities, Attacks and Countermeasures

Abstract

There is significant surge in the popularity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), often called drones, with an ongoing increase in demand due to their multi-functional uses. The capacity of the drones to respond to people’s wants accounts for their pervasiveness. Drones with extended functions and capabilities when supplied with communication equipment can be deployed to appropriate places in the field to supplement the public networks operate more efficiently and in vital missions such as infrastructure monitoring operations. To be effective, an unmanned aerial system (UAS) must interact securely with its network’s entities, such as ground control stations, other aircraft and UAS, air traffic control systems, and navigation satellite systems. UAVs are exposed to a dangerous and costly world of cyber dangers as a result of cyber technology and connections. Information interchange between the Ground Control Station (GCS) and the UAV is dependent on communication lines, which are vulnerable to cyber attacks. As a result, detective, defensive, and preventative countermeasures are critical. This study gives a brief summary of exploitation of drones vulnerabilities and cyber-attacks divided into three groups, data interception, manipulation, and interruption. It also analyzes the countermeasures proposed by various researchers for security of UAS networks against cyber-attacks. This review would be beneficial to the readers to understand and evaluate the issues in existing strategies for cyber security of UAVs.