Welcome To The Drones Club
On October 14th 2014, a riot erupted during an International football match at the Partizan Stadium in Belgrade between Serbia and Albania. Surprise, surprise. However this event will go down in the history books because it was the first time a riot has been ignited by the deployment of a civilian drone.
The drone (Technically a UAV or unmanned aerial vehicle) landed in the middle of the pitch towing an Albanian flag with an anti-Serbian slogan written on it. All hell broke loose between the opposing players and supporters and it was a miracle no one was killed. Sadly, it was also a frightening harbinger of things to come.
In a remarkably short period, just a few years, civilian drones have become the hottest, sexiest, most trending new invention in decades. In reality there’s nothing really new about them. The British military utilised unmanned radio-controlled planes as far back as the nineteen twenties. They served as in-flight target practice for fighter pilots.
What is new is the incredible advances in the technology of miniaturisation of UAV’s, this combined with the almost simultaneous development of very small high-powered video cameras and transmitters. The advent of these all seeing mini-helicopters has propelled investment in drone related companies sky high. It’s a high-tech new frontier out there because what made the West wild was the lack of laws and lawmen. That’s exactly what’s happening with drones.
At the moment, anyone could go out and buy a drone for very little money, fly it over your garden wall and transmit live video pictures of you sunbathing nude with your partner…or someone else’s partner. This would not be illegal. Unfortunately, the same drone could also drop a hand grenade into your lap. The laws governing the operation of civilian drones are at best chaotic and at worst non-existent. They vary enormously from country to country and even within the same countries. All over the world civil liberties groups are screaming for new legislation to protect people’s privacy and security.
One of the main reasons for the staggering explosion in drone popularity is the simple fact that UAV’s have myriad beneficial uses in industries such as farming, mining, construction, film and television, energy, marine biology, aviation and law enforcement. The problem is these same drones can be equally effective in the hands of terrorists, criminal gangs, the paparazzi, private investigators and lone wolf sociopaths.
When it comes to surveillance, drones are today the private investigators’ weapon of choice. The eye-in-the-sky never lies, so any evidence gathered by drones is irrefutable in a court of law.
At Priavo Security we have been closely monitoring the development of civilian drones since their inception. In order to best protect the security, assets and privacy of our clients, present and potential, we have developed our own countermeasures against drone attacks and are happy to explain and discuss these strategies with you.