Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas at Austin have successfully taken control of a civilian aerial drone using GPS spoofing. His technique uses a miniature helicopter that overpowers the drones' GPS system and then feeds it alternate coordinates, giving him control over its destination.
This isn't the first aerial drone security vulnerability to be identified —
GPS jammers, which can be easily purchased online, can confuse a drone's onboard computer, forcing it to land immediately. While signal jamming is effective in all types of drones, this spoofing technique can only be used on civilian drones with unencrypted GPS systems.
