Commercial Drone Security: From Convenience to Critical Infrastructure

Executive summary

Commercial drones are no longer gadgets. They are mobile sensor platforms tied to business processes and public safety workflows. That shift demands enterprise-grade cybersecurity: authenticated control, encrypted telemetry, verifiable policy enforcement, and immutable audit.

→ See how we implement this in AeroGuard.

The risk model: why drones need zero-trust

• Attack surface: pilot apps, RF command links, payload control, firmware, third-party integrations, and cloud sync.

• Impact domains: loss of control, spoofed commands, data exfiltration, safety incidents, regulatory breach, and supply-chain exposure.

• Regulatory momentum: Operators in the UK “Specific” category should align to cyber safety objectives under CAP3098 and SORA’s Cyber Safety Extension. caa.co.uk+1

What “good” looks like in 2025

1. Strong identity for people and software
   Hardware-anchored keys for pilots and services. Per-mission signing for flight plans and payload actions. Align with CAA cyber-security certification expectations. caa.co.uk

2. Encrypted telemetry and command channels
   TLS 1.3 transport plus robust crypto at rest. Treat video and sensor feeds as sensitive data that can identify sites, patterns, and vulnerabilities.

3. Policy-bound autonomy
   Geofences, altitude windows, and payload interlocks enforced by the control layer.

4. Runtime integrity
   Checksum and watchdog verification. Block unknown APIs and DLL side-loads.

5. Full auditability
   Append-only logs capturing who issued what command, when, where, and with which policy.

6. Disconnected operation
   Maintain security guarantees even when air-gapped, then reconcile audit trails once re-connected.

DJI in the stack: what the vendor provides and what you still need

DJI has expanded privacy and security features and publishes audits and a security white paper. These are positive baselines, but enterprise deployments still need an independent enforcement and audit layer to meet zero-trust goals and regulatory evidence needs. DJI Official+1

Mapping to UK SORA cyber safety objectives

• Threat identification and mitigations across UAS, ground station, and C2 links.

• Secure-by-default configurations and operator procedures integrated into mission planning.

• Evidence for approvals and audits via immutable logs and configuration provenance. caa.co.uk+1

Architecture blueprint

• Trusted middleware between the pilot app/ground station and vendor SDK.

• Key management for pilots, services, and missions.

• Policy engine that signs and validates flight envelopes and payload actions.

• Telemetry pipeline with encryption, integrity tags, and optional clean-cloud relay.

• Immutable logging for chain of custody.

Implementation checklist

• Enforce mutual TLS across all control and telemetry paths.

• Require signed missions and per-flight policy manifests.

• Deny-by-default for SDK calls outside the approved profile.

• Attach integrity attestation to command packets.

• Store logs in an append-only ledger and rotate keys after each mission.

Call to action

If your drones touch regulated data, critical infrastructure, or sensitive locations, a zero-trust layer is no longer optional.

→ Deploy AeroGuard to enforce encrypted telemetry, policy-bound control, and full audit.

Further reading: NCSC and CAA cyber guidance; ENISA threat landscape. caa.co.uk+3GOV.UK+3NCSC+3