Headline: The Age of Drone Vandalism Begins With an Epic NYC

[LaCroix]

I wonder why people are thinking about shooting that drone down.

a)It is remote-controlled.
b)It needs to come close - very close - to spray.

You just need a short range white noise generator installed in the billboard.

Drone approaches, veers out of control. It might not crash every time, but it certainly will not work as intended.

[Gaidin]

What's Wired's definition of 'hacked' anyway. Sounds more like they just programmed a flight plan which is exactly what the thing is supposed to be able to do.

[Beowulf]

I wonder why people are thinking about shooting that drone down.

a)It is remote-controlled.
b)It needs to come close - very close - to spray.

You just need a short range white noise generator installed in the billboard.

Drone approaches, veers out of control. It might not crash every time, but it certainly will not work as intended.

Jamming generally falls afoul of FCC regulations.

[Starglider]

What's Wired's definition of 'hacked' anyway.

'Duct taped a spray can to it'. 'Hacked' is grossly overused, witness the 'life hacking' crowd.

[Broomstick]

Hey, man, don't diss the duct tape, I've used that shit to fix aircraft!

But yeah, "hacked" has been overused to the point of being meaningless. Didn't we used to use the term "jury-rigged"?

[Gaidin]

Jamming generally falls afoul of FCC regulations.

Speaking of, if you were to try something like that I think those drones can literally have a GPS programmed into them where they'll fly on their own...

[Beowulf]

Jamming generally falls afoul of FCC regulations.

Speaking of, if you were to try something like that I think those drones can literally have a GPS programmed into them where they'll fly on their own...

I mean, you could jam the GPS signal, but that still falls afoul of FCC regs, and is very likely to get someone pissed off with you, compared with jamming a control signal. OTOH, nothing really stops someone sticking a cell modem in the drone either, at which point you're stuck jamming commercial cell frequencies, which is equally likely to get a bunch of people really pissed off.

[Gaidin]

I mean, you could jam the GPS signal, but that still falls afoul of FCC regs, and is very likely to get someone pissed off with you, compared with jamming a control signal. OTOH, nothing really stops someone sticking a cell modem in the drone either, at which point you're stuck jamming commercial cell frequencies, which is equally likely to get a bunch of people really pissed off.

Well, that's talking spite at this point as opposed to mere protection of the bulletin board. Not that anybody is there to pick up the pieces of the drone that was crashed anyway. Legal issues aside, for the moment.

[Broomstick]

Speaking of, if you were to try something like that I think those drones can literally have a GPS programmed into them where they'll fly on their own...

Usual set-up is a GPS chip with a pre-programmed location so that if the drone loses contact with the pilot it will fly itself back home. Of course, programming it for a pre-set course is no big deal, either.

[KroLazuxy_87]

The Anti-Drone Drone
A bigger, badder flying copter debuts to catch trespassers

It's a dog-eat-dog world—and now a drone-eat-drone one, too. At a February demonstration in La Queue-en-Brie, France (right), Malou Tech showed off the Interceptor MP200 and its “antidrone strategy”—capturing smaller unmanned copters with a net. The remote-controlled, defensive ambusher could be law enforcement's airborne answer to an emerging security threat. Earlier this year personal flying bots were spotted hovering suspiciously over cultural and diplomatic landmarks in central Paris. Since October 2014 officials have recorded more than 60 incidents of drone activity near France's capital and its nuclear plants. In 2012 the nation adopted civilian drone legislation that has begun to go into effect, including a requirement for permissions to fly over populated areas. Here in the U.S., laws and regulations that govern flight of unmanned aircraft are still evolving.

[Grumman]

Okay, that is hilarious.

[General Zod]

You'd be better off sort of draping string/cord kind of in front of the billboard such that you can't get close enough to hit the surface with the spray paint stream - if the drone tries to close in, it gets tangled in it - kind of like a spiderweb.

That only works if the surface is accessible. The whole point of the drone is to get at places you can't access.

How would the surface of a billboard *not* be accessible? You had to get up there to place the billboard in the first place... Something like a fine net made of fishing line would be more than enough.

Heck, I bet a high powered water gun or paintball gun would be enough to bring down these drones.

The average billboard is installed using a crane or a massive ladder. That's a bit more difficult and/or expensive to lug around for someone wanting to graffiti it up.

[salm]

At least draw a penis. I mean...if you can't draw that it's just a wasted opportunity...

Agreed.

How is it anything other than simple property damage (no more artistic than setting it on fire) if it's just a red line haphazardly scribbled across a billboard.

It is property damage. The question is, is it property damage of the negative type? Personally I like everything that destroys advertisments. Be it Adblock on the web browser or some dude going around tearing down or painting over posters.