Expert warns of increasing drone swarms and the need for faster detection

Federal authorities have provided new details in the case of “the mysterious drones” spotted around the northeastern U.S.

In a joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Authority and the Department of Defense, the agencies on Tuesday attributed the sightings to different aerial vehicles including “lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones.”

Aajhan Ranganathan, a Northeastern University professor of computer sciences and a cybersecurity expert, says we will likely continue to see more drone swarms as the technology becomes more accessible and cheaper to build and modify.

If this situation has taught us anything, he says, it’s that potential threats in the sky need to be identified more quickly.

“How fast can we detect whether it’s a drone or a pigeon flying? How fast can we detect what kind of drone it is? How fast can we detect what software it is running?” Ranganathan asks.

In the letter, the federal agencies say they are using a combination of “advanced detection technology” and insights from “trained visual observers” to collect intel on the situation. The FBI and the CIA also briefed members of the House Intelligence Committee on the situation Tuesday afternoon.

Since November, the FBI says it has received more than 5,000 tips about the sightings. The agencies doubled down on their assessment that the vehicles pose no national or public safety.

Ranganathan says there are a “lot of good opportunities here to develop the technologies to protect against these kinds of threats.”

“I think one of the biggest things is that before we even see a particular drone, we should be able to see a particular drone is flying and potentially take it down,” he says. “We should be able to handle a swarm, and we will see more and more coming in.”

This story is republished courtesy of Northeastern Global News news.northeastern.edu.