DJI insisted drone-tracking AeroScope signals were encrypted — now it admits they aren’t

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Last month, Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov accused DJI of helping Russia to kill Ukrainian civilians in an unusual way - by allowing Russia to freely use a drone-tracking system called DJI AeroScope to target the exact location of Ukrainian drone pilots and, allegedly, kill them with mortar strikes and missiles.

So we wrote an in-depth explainer on what DJI AeroScope actually is, how it works, what it was designed for, and what, if anything, DJI could actually do to prevent people from getting killed using its tech. But a hacker pointed out that DJI wasn't being truthful with us on at least one point - and the company is now admitting it. The AeroScope signals broadcast by every modern DJI drone aren't actually encrypted,...

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