If gigabytes of video data is being streamed by every single DJI drone it should be easy enough to find out. Use the DJI Android app to control a drone and check the app’s data usage before and after.
Also, China has been caught doing supply chain attacks by inserting chips onto circuit boards to make them easier to compromise. They could slip in a chip that enables a wavelength their satellites can access, for example.
We should do neither. We should allow them, but put tariffs to account for subsidies, which should encourage price competition. The concern is that China will get a monopoly, and that’s where supply chain attacks are more likely.
Sorry but “they could slip in a chip that enabled a wavelength their satellites can access” is ridiculous. Sending a real-time video stream to a satellite would require a large and very power hungry transmitter on the drone. It’d be super obvious.
People won’t do that at scale.
It’d take only one person to recognize a sudden large traffic spike caused by the app and post about it online to ruin such a setup. As soon as it’s confirmed by a few more people, it’d immediately be a major news story. And it’s not like it’s particularly hard to spot unusual traffic; especially on a phone where the OS monitors per-app data usage both on mobile and WiFi.
Starlink used ~100W at launch, and it’s coming to phones. They could also use cell towers directly. Or sharing data in a swarm with nearby units and sending on whichever has access. Or they wait to upload until they’re on wifi when nobody cares about data usage.
There are a lot of theoretical options here. The point isn’t to look at a single option, but to consider what China may consider doing once they have eliminated competition. Exfiltrating data is one option, but there are others as well.
The solution isn’t to ban DJI drones, but to ensure there’s enough competition that they don’t have a monopoly.
If gigabytes of video data is being streamed by every single DJI drone it should be easy enough to find out. Use the DJI Android app to control a drone and check the app’s data usage before and after.
People won’t do that at scale.
Also, China has been caught doing supply chain attacks by inserting chips onto circuit boards to make them easier to compromise. They could slip in a chip that enables a wavelength their satellites can access, for example.
That’s the concern Congress has.
So why not ban all electronics from China? Why pick an app here, a piece of hardware there?
If absolutely any device made in China could have a secret satellite comms chip embedded in it then banning one brand of drones won’t help.
We should do neither. We should allow them, but put tariffs to account for subsidies, which should encourage price competition. The concern is that China will get a monopoly, and that’s where supply chain attacks are more likely.
Sorry but “they could slip in a chip that enabled a wavelength their satellites can access” is ridiculous. Sending a real-time video stream to a satellite would require a large and very power hungry transmitter on the drone. It’d be super obvious.
It’d take only one person to recognize a sudden large traffic spike caused by the app and post about it online to ruin such a setup. As soon as it’s confirmed by a few more people, it’d immediately be a major news story. And it’s not like it’s particularly hard to spot unusual traffic; especially on a phone where the OS monitors per-app data usage both on mobile and WiFi.
Starlink used ~100W at launch, and it’s coming to phones. They could also use cell towers directly. Or sharing data in a swarm with nearby units and sending on whichever has access. Or they wait to upload until they’re on wifi when nobody cares about data usage.
There are a lot of theoretical options here. The point isn’t to look at a single option, but to consider what China may consider doing once they have eliminated competition. Exfiltrating data is one option, but there are others as well.
The solution isn’t to ban DJI drones, but to ensure there’s enough competition that they don’t have a monopoly.