Page 20 - Security Today, January/February 2020

is a great compliment to an airspace secu- rity and defense system - when RF is avail- able to detect - but it is not foundational.”
According to Preece, Fortem has red and blue teams (many staffed by eager interns) that practice flying and detect- ing RF-silent drone missions every day so Fortem can stay ahead of this RF-silent threat. Configuring a waypoint driven RF- Silent drone flight is not complicated and can be configured by anyone who owns a drone and has access to the internet.
“There is a mistaken belief that it takes a Ph.D. to configure a drone to fly RF-silent. To the contrary, it is as simple as watching a short YouTube video,” ac- cording to Adam Robertson the CTO of Fortem. ”The technology that the Fortem scientist and engineering teams are work- ing on are world class and leading edge. We are making the airspace secure and safe so that drones can be trusted as useful tools to advance our civilization.”
If you are interested in what a drone at- tack might look like, take a look at an Au- gust 2019 movie, An Angel Has Fallen. The
plot line is all about drones and the possi- bility of an attack. Preece said the theme of this movie is real, and it could happen again. Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, would tell you the same thing.
Also real is the robust deployment of the 5G network. Because of its nature, the use of the 5G network to fly a drone will make it extremely difficult to isolate, take over, and jam rogue drones.
Here is another example of how a drone could cause chaos: American football is a huge spectator sport in the United States, and football (soccer) is huge in many other countries. Stadiums are filled with cheer- ing fans. Most stadiums are open and vul- nerable to a drone attack. Even stadiums that have a roof also have an opening and are generally left open during a sporting event. Case in point: In November 2017, a man deployed a personal drone and dropped leaflets over Levi Stadium during a San Francisco 49ers vs. Oakland Raiders football game. While the man was charged with violating secure airspace, it was an eye opener that a drone incursion was eas-
ily made.
Cathy Lanier, the NFL senior vice
president for security told a Senate Home- land Security and Governmental Affairs committee, “IN the two years that I have been at the NFL, we have observed a dra- matic increase in the number of threats, incidents and incursions by drones.
“We are very fortunate that the drone over Levi Stadium dropped only leaflets,” Lanier said.
Unfortunately, there are those who would plan and coordinate such an attack. We’ve seen evil before and here is where a defender drone comes into play. A squad- ron of defenders would be placed around the perimeter of the stadium, ready to be launched on a moment’s notice, but how do they know an attack is imminent?
It is rather simple. Fortem’s SkyDome network is deployed around the stadium and will pick up an aerial object and re- lay that information to stadium command and control security center. The radar and AI-enabled software that enables detec- tion, tracking, pursuit, observation, threat assessments and capture of the flying drones cannot be compromised, and adds a desperately needed security layer to the stadiums multi-layered security. The sys- tem works autonomously defending the stadiums airspace night and day and in good weather and bad, alerting security personnel on their mobile device when there is a potential threat.
Spying on the
Corporate World
Drones are also used for corporate spy- ing. Recently, an executive team holding a meeting on a higher floor of an office building witnessed a drone outside the window capturing information on the whiteboard presentation. The SkyDome network would have alerted security staff that an aircraft was in that immediate area.
Properly deployed, the air space around a facility can be just as secure as the ground perimeter.
“Fortem Technologies is engineering solutions to make the airspace around us secure and safe, so that the huge potential and upside of drones can be realized,” Pre- ece said. “Collectively we have figured how to make ground transportation secure and safe, and we can do it in the air as well.”
Ralph C. Jensen is the editor in chief of Security Today magazine.
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Photo: Ralph C. Jensen