US DHS: DJI drones being used to spy by China

[WMGroomAK]

In a memo from August this year that has been released and is being reported on, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is stating that DJI drones are being used as data collection tools for the Chinese Government.  

https://www.engadget.com/2017/11/30/homeland-security-claims-dji-drones-spying-china/

Quote

... The memo, which was apparently issued in August, says that the officials assess "with moderate confidence that Chinese-based company DJI Science and Technology is providing US critical infrastructure and law enforcement data to the Chinese government." The LA ICE office also says that the information is based on, "open source reporting and a reliable source within the unmanned aerial systems industry with first and secondhand access."

 

Part of the memo focuses on targets that the LA ICE office believes to be of interest to DJI. "DJI's criteria for selecting accounts to target appears to focus on the account holder's ability to disrupt critical infrastructure," it said. The memo goes on to say that DJI is particularly interested in infrastructure like railroads and utilities, companies that provide drinking water as well as weapon storage facilities. The LA ICE office concludes that it, "assesses with high confidence the critical infrastructure and law enforcement entities using DJI systems are collecting sensitive intelligence that the Chinese government could use to conduct physical or cyber attacks against the United States and its population."

...

But this isn't the first time that the US government has butted heads with DJI. In August, a US Army memo directed its members to immediately stop using all DJI products due to cybersecurity concerns -- something that the Australian Defense Force also did temporarily. Shortly thereafter, DJI released its Local Data Mode, which allows users to cut off drones from all internet activity. And there have been some legitimate security vulnerabilities brought up in regards to DJI's systems. But the idea that one of DJI's main goals is to spy on the US seems pretty absurd.

 

In a statement to the New York Times regarding the ICE memo, DJI said, "The allegations in the bulletin are so profoundly wrong as a factual matter that ICE should consider withdrawing it, or at least correcting its unsupportable assertions."

ICE Memo: https://info.publicintelligence.net/ICE-DJI-China.pdf

 

The memo itself provides a fairly interesting read although I'm doubtful to the extent that this is being used for data collection and espionage purposes...  It is worth contemplating though since DJI has stated (at least according to the memo) that they comply with requests from the Chinese Government to hand over data collected in China.  Another section of the memo alleges that purchases of vineyards in an area of California by Chinese companies following a large family-owned wine producer acquiring and using DJI drones was due to the companies being able to use the data collected by DJI for their own benefit.  How much of these claims do you all believe and if so, are you going to put up any DJI products that you own?  I would be more cautious myself about purchasing a DJI drone, however am unsure how much difference that would truly make... Anybody know a good Canadian or US drone manufacturer so my data is only going to the NSA?

[WMGroomAK]

51 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

so what's being sent again? o_o

 

if it's GPS data, I can imagine either selective remote video recording or even remote drone kamikaze ._.

According to the ICE Memo:

 

Quote

DJI sells group one category (under five pounds) UAS intended for consumer and professional use. The UAS operate on two Android smartphone applications called DJI GO and Sky Pixels that automatically tag GPS imagery and locations, register facial recognition data even when the system is off, and access users' phone data. Additionally, the applications capture user identification, e-mail addresses, full names, phone numbers, images, videos, and computer credentials. Much of the information collected includes proprietary and sensitive critical infrastructure data, such as detailed imagery of power control panels, security measures for critical infrastructure sites, or materials used in bridge construction. According to the source of information (SOI), DJI automatically uploads this information into cloud storage systems located in Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, to which the Chinese government most likely has access.2 SIP Los Angeles assesses with high confidence a foreign government with access to this information could easily coordinate physical or cyber attacks against critical sites.

Again, this is from the ICE memo and not from DJI so not really sure how much is true, but if so, seems like some fairly sensitive data may be getting uploaded to the cloud storage systems...

[Ryujin2003]

11 minutes ago, WMGroomAK said:

According to the ICE Memo:

 

Again, this is from the ICE memo and not from DJI so not really sure how much is true, but if so, seems like some fairly sensitive data may be getting uploaded to the cloud storage systems...

This is most likely Law Enforcement Sensitive data which is cut down from higher classified information. I wouldn't hesitate to believe that this is at all possible and have no doubts this actually occurs.

 

Personally, do I believe this? Yes absolutely.

[RollTime]

Wow... I really doubt this is true but if so that's bad. Someone should datamine DJI Go and look for the "hidden facial recognition".

 

The spark is the only DJI product w/ face recognition, so if anyone finds data relating to a Phantom and face recognition that could be a red flag.

[Bananasplit_00]

Well DJI lost any respect I had for them with the whole "we threatened a guy who found critical security flaws for us because he found them" 

[Matu20]

At least they are using consumer drones, so probably the tech will continue to evolve quicker that way.

[TVwazhere]

14 hours ago, WMGroomAK said:

 Anybody know a good Canadian or US drone manufacturer so my data is only going to the NSA?

I believe Parrot is. I was also going to say Yuneec but I think they might also be from the east. Maybe I should have bought that Typhoon instead pf the Phantom 3... Oh well

[goodtofufriday]

9 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Well DJI lost any respect I had for them with the whole "we threatened a guy who found critical security flaws for us because he found them" 

Is that not enough proof of them being up to something.

[Bananasplit_00]

1 minute ago, goodtofufriday said:

Is that not enough proof of them being up to something.

not really, that was mostly just being total dicks because they could and then it blew up in their face

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

Well DJI lost any respect I had for them with the whole "we threatened a guy who found critical security flaws for us because he found them" 

Well it also started out as a NDA before it escalated to threats, which yah, makes this report of them providing information far more valid so I have no doubts that they were working with their government...

[Pi Dude]

This is old news in a way.  The Army banned the drones for the same reason back in August...  Its been on the Military sites for a while.

https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/bad-week-dji-180964415/

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/08/us-army-just-ordered-soldiers-stop-using-drones-chinas-dji/139999/

https://siliconangle.com/blog/2017/08/06/u-s-army-bans-use-chinese-made-dji-drones-due-cyber-vulnerabilities/