Are You Ready for a Drone Attack on Your Infrastructure?

Written by Curtis Marquardt on February 29, 2024. Posted in Infrastructure Security.

In July 2020, someone fitted a DJI drone with two long ropes; both ropes had a long copper wire tied to the end of it. That person then attempted to fly the drone into a substation in Pennsylvania. Through luck or perhaps operator error, the drone never reached the substation, instead crashing onto the roof of an adjacent building. But as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security reported, this effort was done with the intent to disrupt the grid. Since then, we’ve seen the use of drones in military conflicts overseas ramp up considerably, including an instance where Ukraine sent drones into Russia and used them to drop explosives on a substation.

The technology and innovation of drones are improving faster than ever before. Because of these advancements, the number of threats that utilities can face from drone attacks has grown. So, what can you do to build an effective drone emergency response plan? Do you have the ability to do more than just detect drones in your airspace? And what does the future of drone security look like? We had a chance to talk with drone security expert Bill Edwards to learn the answers to these questions and more.

Utility Security Magazine:
Welcome! Can you tell our readers a bit more about yourself?

Bill Edwards:
Certainly! I’m a retired U.S. Army colonel who served 30 years in the Army. After I retired, I started to do security consulting work and got very interested in the evolution of small unmanned aircraft systems, or drone technology, especially as they relate to security and safety. By 2017, I had begun doing lectures on the topic and have built a litany of educational documents and foundational online courses for security professionals so that they can better understand and develop their air domain security.

Utility Security Magazine:
Given that you have followed the evolution of drones for quite some time, what can you say about where we are with drone technology evolution at this point in time?

Bill Edwards:
What we’re seeing today I liken to the cybersecurity awakening we had about 10 years ago. Drones really came into the market about 14 years ago, but when you see what came to market back in 2010 and compare it to the technology that is available now, it’s really been growing quite rapidly. This is primarily because of how they are being used in conflict zones around the world.

Armies are using the technology to their advantage, and they’re using creativity and innovation to see what they can get out of the technology. Those lessons learned are being promulgated on different social media sites and across the web. The information is readily available and easily accessible.

Utility Security Magazine:
Can you talk more about how drone technology is being advanced through war-zone applications?

Bill Edwards:
This all started around 2014 with the conflicts in the Middle East, and then it’s simply evolved over different conflicts since that time. Obviously, the Ukraine-Russian border conflict started in 2014. So, it’s been going on for some time there. There are other instances where we saw drones being employed very well, such as in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. And now we have seen some instances of that growth even going further in the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza. These conflicts become working laboratories for experimentation with the technology, and they have promulgated the speed of development.

What you can purchase now commercially is connected to what’s being demanded in all of these different areas of the world, especially when you look at surveillance, reconnaissance and gathering data. Small drones are being used for these missions in conflict zones. However, they are also being used as direct-attack weapons systems, and we’ve really seen that improve over time. For example, first-person-view technology is being used in Ukraine right now for precision strikes. And that’s really changing the battlefield dynamics and how things are executed.

Why do I talk about that? The answer is that anything that’s taking shape across the globe and in this realm of technology can promulgate itself into other places. And so security and safety professionals need to start thinking about how the air domain now fits into the physical security program because the physical security program is no longer just concerned with the ground. It now includes the air. And that’s not to mention that there are also electromagnetic and cybersecurity implications of drones where nefarious actors can use them to fly over buildings and facilities and to spoof Wi-Fi networks.

Utility Security Magazine:
How are drones being upfitted to accomplish these more deadly and nefarious missions?

Bill Edwards:
In Ukraine, they have an extensive supply chain of sUAS that grows with importance every day. They’ve also experimented with 3D printing. All countries now realize how this technology is shaping modern conflict. The drone statistics for that conflict are quite staggering. A recent report stated that Ukrainians were losing as many as 10,000 small unmanned aircraft systems a month. That tells you that the supply chain must be at least three times that to sustain that amount of loss. There are also reports that there are more than 6,000 types of drones and platforms being used and tested in conflict zones. The fact that unmanned aircraft system devices can be purchased for a thousand dollars or less makes it a really inexpensive way to find a pathway to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technology—or to turn them into a weapons delivery platform.

Now, all over social media platforms, we see these drones being used in these ways. In the military, we call that TTP, or techniques, tactics, and procedures—and we are seeing these drone applications or TTPs being shared instantly with the world. So, when we circle back to security and safety regarding this type of technology in society, we have to think about critical infrastructure. We have to think about our mass gathering events. We have to think about all of these places that now need a security program that addresses airspace.

Utility Security Magazine:
So, let’s address how utility security professionals can protect their facilities from drone attacks. Can you paint us a picture of that landscape and touch upon what utilities should be doing to be prepared for drone attacks?

Bill Edwards:
First, I would start with what I call the “ground game.” That means when you begin with a drone vulnerability risk assessment, that’s a ground assessment of what there is at ground level that could be vulnerable to drones. This includes understanding the real threat, the critical assets that need to be protected, vulnerabilities to those assets, consequences if those assets are compromised, and ways to mitigate the risk. When that’s done, the assessment is really what is going to lead you into the technology you need to support the “air domain” program, which I call the technical reconnaissance of the airspace. Once you deploy that technology, you’ll be able to determine what is flying over your utility locations and have a solid understanding of the patterns (days/times, etc). Having a pattern analysis is a great data-gathering product. Next, you’ve got to create a drone emergency response plan. And finally, you have to do training and conduct scenario-driven exercises of that plan—and that includes working with external stakeholders like local law enforcement, fire departments, hazardous material experts and medical response organizations.

So, those are the four simple steps, and they are simple in concept. But once a utility starts getting into the details of how to do those things, that process will set them up with a very good foundation for an air domain security program.

Unfortunately, until the law changes, not all utilities or critical infrastructure will have the legal right to use drone countering or mitigation technologies. There are a few reasons for this. One, drones operate on radio-frequency and GPS spectrums, and because of this, those countering or mitigation technologies can produce a lot of second-and third-order effects in those spectrums. Two, drones are categorized by the Federal Aviation Administration as an air platform, making them the same as a 737 when it comes to what sort of laws and regulations must be practiced and enforced.

There are only three areas where countering or mitigation technologies are allowed: Department of Defense facilities, designated critical infrastructure, and Department of Homeland Security Special Event Assessment Rating 1-5 events—events like the Superbowl, Kentucky Derby, and so on might be relevant examples. So, one can put in a request for counter or mitigation help. However, the problem has been bandwidth and the ability of the federal government to fulfill requests. Since 2018, there have been about 121,000 requests made for counter-drone solutions. Only 77 were approved.

This is something that our Security Industry Association Counter-UAS legislative team is working on right now. We are trying to get those delegations of authority for drone countering and mitigation technology use down to the level of mass gathering venues, critical infrastructure operators, and so on.

Utility Security Magazine:
How is the work coming along with the SIA Counter-UAS legislative team? In what ways do you hope to communicate with lawmakers that the laws should be changed? What do you envision a successful solution will look like?

Bill Edwards:
I’ll start by saying that the good news is that the technology already exists to empower utilities to counter/mitigate drones correctly. It’s not currently legal for utilities to use, but that is what we are working to change. My opinion is that the best solution to use is something called take-control/command. This technology would be a good solution for utilities to use because it provides the possibility for the least amount of collateral damage if a drone were to come into one’s airspace and true mitigation actions were needed. A mitigation technology like signal jamming would not be as ideal because the drone is either going to just drop out of the air or return to its home base.

So, I’d like to see take-command/control technology rights for critical infrastructure. Then, the next level is that there ought to be some training and certifications that operators would need, and those things would have to be delegated so that people all the way down the chain of command can use the technology. We met with lawmakers back in September of 2023, and we’re going to meet again with them this year and continue to promulgate the ideas of what these solutions really need to be.

Utility Security Magazine:
Until those laws are changed, utilities must use the technologies that are legally available to them. Can you talk about those technologies and how they may best be used?

Bill Edwards:
When we look at Group 1 and Group 2 drones that are 55 pounds or less, we know they have great capability, but they are also relatively small. Most experts in the field will tell you that detecting things this small is a very complex operation. What most companies sell right now for drone detection is radio-frequency detection and monitoring. Those solutions do a decent job, but it’s unlikely that they will catch every drone in the air. To have a really good picture of what is flying around in your airspace, you really need a layered sensor package that includes radio frequency, rada, optical, and acoustic so that you can really triangulate what type of platform it is, how fast it is flying and so on. Additionally, geolocation of the operator is also a viable solution that would need refinement in the drone emergency response plan.

Utility Security Magazine:
Let’s shift to a future-thinking conversation. If you had the power to look into the future to see what the drone industry and drone security would look like, what do you think you would see?

Bill Edwards:
The big thing is the maturity and evolution of drone technology continues to get better and better, and it does so faster than ever. In the future, you’re going to see more AI-driven and autonomous drone platforms, and that is going to create a lot of complex problems for security professionals to solve. Another concern I have is with the advancing technology of swarming drones. More specifically intelligent swarms that are centrally controlled. A drone swarm that is centrally controlled, can be very dangerous. Add to that AI capabilities, and that’s very scary.

Utility Security Magazine:
Thank you so much for your time. If readers have questions or need help with drone security, how can they best reach you?

Bill Edwards:
Readers can visit my website at www.phoenix6consulting.com. I have a contact form on that site as well as some online courses that can help folks create an air domain program. Courses include drone vulnerability and risk assessment, drone emergency response plan, and counter unmanned aerial systems and law. The courses can also be found here: phoenix6consulting.talentlms.com

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