Unmanned Agents
The rapid growth of technological progress has brought industrial and military espionage to a new level of development. Methods of collecting information and intelligence activities have been supplemented by such methods as:
– spy on an object or person using technical devices;
– collecting of personal information or business data, including hacking of email, social media accounts, etc;
– collection and analysis of information and data from open sources, including data on supplies and purchases, participation in tenders and government projects, tax reports, etc.
Today, most of the information comes from electronic sources, and this greatly simplifies the task for attackers. It has become much more convenient and easier for them to collect all the necessary information without resorting to physical hacking, but this area has also undergone significant changes under the influence of technological progress. New hardware tracking, video and audio surveillance have appeared on the market.
One of such methods is unmanned aerial vehicles or drones. Due to their economy and efficiency, drones are actively used during military operations around the world.
Nowadays, unmanned aerial vehicles are successfully used during military conflicts all over the world. They are mainly used to conduct reconnaissance activities and adjust the work of mortar and artillery crews. There has been an increase in drones use, both home-made and commercial models, as carriers of small ammunition, which they dropped on targets. Drones can also be equipped with lethal weapons.
Specialized military models of drones are classified as top secret and used only by armies and special services. Various models of commercial models are available on the market to the individual, the number of which is growing from year to year.
Due to compact size, commercial drones are ideal for industrial espionage. The main distinguishing characteristics of military models from commercial developments were the time and maximum flight range, the quality of video and photo shooting, but recently the most advanced commercial developments have significantly reduced this gap.