A Comprehensive Survey: Cybersecurity Challenges and Futures of Autonomous Drones

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) also known as drones are changing the world [1]. Whether it’s military, medicine, agriculture, city planning, surveillance, package delivery or sports. These machines are useful in ways that haven’t been discovered yet. Making dangerous work safe by putting something between people and potential risks. Increasing the amount of land that can be searched in search and rescues. Drones are making difficult jobs easier. Conversely the danger they pose is also being discovered. Everyday a new danger is presented by the growing number of drones being used, and as we rely more on them the problem grows. This research paper looks into the current security issues that are found in drones and what is being done to lessen the risk that drones pose to countries, businesses, and civilians. Looking to find what works best to protect drones from cyber threats, and how to protect against them. This is done by reading research journals, news articles, watching videos done by professors/news organizations then analyzing the data found. Two frames of mind are used when analyzing the problems found from research. First, will be how to protect the drone from cyber threats. Second will be how to protect from drone cyber attacks. The results of this research found that drones are extremely unsafe against cyber attacks, and are powerful weapons to finding and exploiting holes in a systems defense. Research on defending drones found insufficient authentication, encryption, signal verification, defined access privileges, and threat reporting. These problems exist from hobby pilots to [2]Department of Defense (DOD) drones. The greatest tool a drone has when attacking a system is stealth and mobility. It can attack multiple targets with only a few fly bys. Because of this the best defense against drone cyber threats is detection. Once detected the drone could be dealt with physically or by exploiting security holes commonly found in drones. Resulting from the cybersecurity threat posed both to drones, and from drones [3, 4, 5, 6] laws are being written in multiple countries. These laws are designed to limit their usage or ban them completely. To solve this problem, there are three key steps to eliminating a majority of the threats. [7] Implementing authentication, encryption, and a threat reporting system would allow drones to continue to change the world safely.