Wifi and hackers??

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Can having your wifi on make your aircraft vulnerable to hackers?

I have a P3P well, actually; this is my second. The first P3S I had when flying, lost complete connection, causing me to lose and crash my aircraft.

Upon purchasing my second drone, I read somewhere that pilots should disable their phone/tablets wifi.

Therefore, I have been doing same and have been flying without any interruptions. However, last night while flying, I was using the LITCHI app and forgot to disable my wifi.

During my flight course, the aircraft became discounted with my RC and I lost total control of my aircraft (different location than the aforementioned disconnected incident).

Thankfully, the preset course on LITCHI app remained unaffected and my air craft was able to return to me and land safely.

This morning I was researching the pros and cons of having wifi on while flying and I am wondering if it is best to have my wifi off for future flights. To the best of my knowledge, it is possible for someone to interfere with a drone by interfering with ones wifi connection.

If anyone can shed light on this information or lack there of, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
 
The more likely explanation is that the wifi caused interference w/ the control signal which caused the disconnection. Why would someone go through the trouble of hacking your wifi? Even if they were able to gain access to your device (or bird, which is even less likely), they would still need to be able to intercept the signal and inject meaningful packets into the data stream in order to do anything with your craft, which is quite difficult if not impossible for an average hacker... ie, someone who would even bother attempting something like this. If they just jammed your wifi or scrambled the packets, your bird would just RTH due to loss of signal.
 
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The more likely explanation is that the wifi caused interference w/ the control signal which caused the disconnection. Why would someone go through the trouble of hacking your wifi? Even if they were able to gain access to your device (or bird, which is even less likely), they would still need to be able to intercept the signal and inject meaningful packets into the data stream in order to do anything with your craft, which is quite difficult if not impossible for an average hacker... ie, someone who would even bother attempting something like this. If they just jammed your wifi or scrambled the packets, your bird would just RTH due to loss of signal.


So, would I mostly not loose connection if I don't have wifi on? Do you think that could be the cause of my two disconnected incidents? This issue frightens me.
 
P3 has its own 2.4GHz network and no hackers can enter it, however home wifi, telephone network, microwaves etc might create interference to P3 communication. Similarly wifi on your device might create an interference. It is advisable to select a channel which has least possibility of interference at site of flying (RC location).

Hackers can enter your device through your wifi network if it is not protected and technically disturb functioning of go app or any other app. But chances of hackers interfering with flying operations today are almost negligible compared to the possibility of interference to your RC signals.

It is therefore suggested to switch off wifi of the device. If you are using phone as a device to run Go app, it is advisable to switch off phone network too along with other notifications which disturb you while flying your P3.

I have a dedicated iPhone 6plus and iPad mini 2 with no other apps running on them.
 
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He correct remember you have to bind a specifi wifi unit and use the crafts MAC address so it will properly communicate. With this small of a network and limited range and having to bindntonthencfaft a hacker would have the right info and couldn't ssh in to the network since it only allows one connection at a time. Fruitless and very doubtful if any have ever made it in in 20 minutes.
 
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So, would I mostly not loose connection if I don't have wifi on? Do you think that could be the cause of my two disconnected incidents? This issue frightens me.
Losing connection depends on many factors, obstructed view, interference, etc. It's possible the wifi on your tablet caused interference. It's also possible something else caused the disconnect. Disconnects happen, that's why the RTH feature exists. Also keep in mind that the P3S uses a much weaker control signal, so it more prone to disconnects. Your Pro should rarely disconnect unless you fly behind something and lose LOS.
 
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2.4Ghz is microwave frequency basically, meaning it´s very sensitive to water (think "microwave oven" to get the idea). Plants have lots of water so they absorb a great deal of the P3´s signal at times. I guess that´s an important fact to keep in mind whenever and wherever we´re flying our quads, because that can affect control, range, etc. a lot more than anything else in rural environments.

Buildings are a more of a factor in cities as MW can be blocked or bounce off solid surfaces. Interference from cell towers, wifi routers, antennaes and other stuff also affect signal but not as much as people think. Like, it´s OK to fly very close to power lines or cell towers, as long as the signal is not being blocked or absorbed by other obstacles, or weakened out by long distance.

Forget hackers, it´d take a very decided, knowledgeable and resourcefull (as in time, equipment, etc.) person to hack in and take control of a P3.
 
Tobeallque, you need to put that conspiracy theorist brain of yours to better use
 
"Countering drones is now a global issue and an increasing concern for the military, government and homeland security forces across every continent," said Graham Beall, managing director of Chess Dynamics. "It's expected that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) will be used increasingly for malicious purposes as they can carry cameras, weapons, toxic chemicals and explosives and are being used increasingly for terrorism, espionage and smuggling purposes."
If you're looking to invest in one to keep pesky neighbourhood drones away, however, it's not cheap. Blighter says prices will start at "less than £800,000".
death-ray_3467666a.gif
 

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