Risk Assessment of SkyX: An Advanced autonomous Drone Platform for Monitoring Critical Infrastructures****

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The use of drones today is exploding. By 2020, the Federal Aviation Administration **(FAA) expects the number of drones in the US to rise to 7 million, making it a $13 billion dollar industry. Along with this momentum is the adoption of drones for commercial and military applications, with more than 600,000 drones are expected to be registered for commercial use by 2020. As the communication and computation capabilities of these drones are increasing, coupled with advances in battery storage, the range of applications of drones keeps growing. Gone are the days of drones simply taking photos. Modern drones are being used across industries in much more critical commercial applications including the inspection of oil and gas pipelines, law enforcement, emergency management, medical supply delivery, and of course military intelligence and payload delivery. However, successful attacks on drones used in the inspection and monitoring of critical infrastructures can be devastating to public safety, corporate espionage, or even national security, and they are already happening around the world. The objective of this research project is to work with SkyX, a Canadian company that specializes in building vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) to audit their current systems and methods in order identify potential flaws and attacks. SkyX will use the research outcome to develop the necessary workflows and updates needed to secure their platform. Ultimately, this might lead to standards or guidelines for data network communications, hardware and software development guidelines in order to protect similar drone platforms against intrusion.