Cyber security considerations for drone use (ITSAP.00.143) – Canadian Centre for Cyber Security
Summary
This guidance from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security outlines cyber security risks and mitigations for drone deployment. It covers drone types (commercial, own-made, professional), how drones operate (on-board and off-board systems), common cyber threats (jamming, spoofing, unauthorised control, data theft), AI-related risks (data manipulation, poisoning, swarm attacks), management platform vulnerabilities, vendor-selection questions and practical steps to secure drones and their data.
Key Points
- Classify your drone: commercial, own-made or professional — each has different supply-chain and risk profiles.
- Perform a threat and risk assessment (TRA) before deployment to determine appropriate cyber security measures.
- Drones consist of on-board (control computer, sensors, comms) and off-board (control station, UI, storage) systems — both must be secured.
- Main threats include GPS jamming/spoofing, unauthorised takeover, data exfiltration (images, metadata) and malware injection.
- AI-enabled drones introduce risks like manipulated inputs, data poisoning, swarm attacks and denial-of-service via software vulnerabilities.
- Management platforms and cloud services expand the attack surface and may expose sensitive authentication credentials.
- Ask vendors about secure-by-design practices, supply-chain visibility, vulnerability analyses, update policies and cryptographic validation.
- For own-made drones, use audited open-source code, strong encryption, redundancy, documented architecture and monitoring.
- Operational mitigations: isolate drone networks, use dedicated controllers, disable default cloud links, prefer on-board/external storage for sensitive data.
- Use intrusion detection, logging, VPNs, static code analysis, third-party vulnerability assessments and consider a zero-trust approach for sensitive operations.
Content Summary
The guidance emphasises starting with a threat and risk assessment to understand how drones will interact with organisational networks and assets. It explains drone architectures — on-board components (flight control, comms, sensors) and off-board systems (control stations, storage) — and why both are attack vectors.
Key technical risks detailed include satellite navigation interference (jamming and spoofing), electromagnetic interference, unauthorised remote control, theft of authentication/encryption material, and the exposure of sensitive metadata from collected images. The document highlights how AI capabilities add further attack vectors: altered sensor inputs, poisoned training data and coordinated swarm behaviours.
The guidance also covers risks arising from management platforms and cloud dependencies, and provides a practical vendor checklist (secure-by-design, supply-chain transparency, vulnerability assessments, update behaviours and cryptographic practices). For organisations building their own drones it recommends audited open-source code, encryption, redundancy and thorough testing.
Operational controls recommended include using dedicated controllers, isolating drone networks from trusted systems, using strong encryption, preferring secure peripherals for data transfer, disabling unnecessary cloud connections, and implementing monitoring/IDS and zero-trust measures.
Context and Relevance
This is official, practical guidance from Canada’s national cyber centre aimed at organisations and teams planning to procure, build or operate drones. As drones become more common in commerce, inspection, emergency response and public safety, their integration into operational networks creates fresh cyber risk. The document ties into wider trends — increased autonomous capability, cloud-managed fleets, AI-enabled navigation — and gives checkpoints that map to modern security practices (supply-chain scrutiny, cryptographic hygiene, network segmentation and zero trust).
Author style: punchy — the guidance is actionable and built for decision-makers and technical teams who need clear checks and mitigations. If you manage drone programmes, these recommendations should be folded into procurement, testing and operations practices.
Why should I read this?
Short version: if your organisation buys, builds or flies drones, don’t wing it. This guide gives you the quick checklist and practical fixes to stop drones becoming a weak link — from vendor questions to simple operational steps that actually reduce risk. It’s the kind of reading that saves you headaches (and breaches) down the line.
Source
Source: https://cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/cyber-security-considerations-drone-use-itsap00143