$40 Chinese Hardware Is Enough To Hack $28,000 Police Drones From Over One Mile Away

 Really hard to find who is controlling drones.

Now it gets even harder...

Thieves can hijack $28,000 professional drones used widely across the law enforcement, emergency, and private sectors using $40 worth of hardware.

 The quadcopters can be hijacked from up to two miles away thanks to a lack of encryption, which is not present due to latency overheads.

 Attackers can commandeer radio links to the drones from up to twomiles  away, and block operators from reconnecting to the craft.

 With the targeted Xbee chip being very common in drones, IBM security guy Nils Rodday says it is likely many more aircraft are open to compromise.

Kind of like bike thieves, repaint it and resell it.

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 The world's most successful consumer drone manufacturer, DJI, has filed a lawsuit in California claiming Yuneec has infringed on two of its patents.

 The claim centers on "systems and methods for target tracking," and "interchangeable mounting platform." 

 They're asking the court to halt the sale of the infringing Yuneec products and systems.

 The case marks the first legal battle in the consumer drone industry.

 "DJI welcomes competition, but is committed to protecting its intellectual property," a press release on the filing stated.

"Friday's filing is a response to safeguard that investment, to protect customers and partners and to promote genuine innovation in this promising area."

 Last year, Yuneec launched the 4K Typhoon drone to compete with DJI's Phantom 3 Professional drone.

 It also announced the Typhoon H at CES, which is equipped with an Intel RealSense camera.