The USA’s University at Albany’s College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC) is partnering with C-UAS company Hidden Level to create a software tool, via CEHC’s new Open Source Intelligence (OSI) lab, for the U.S. Air Force that can be used to mitigate UAS security risks and identify potential threats.
According to a university blog post:
“AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force, selected Hidden Level last month to receive a highly competitive Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract, which will support a Phase I proof-of-concept phase for the creation of the new security tool.
“With more commercial drones entering airspace, the risk of malicious uses of the technology continues to increase,” said Coulthart, director of the OSI lab. “Hidden Level has developed a sensor technology that is designed to track drones in the air, in real-time. However, we still do not know much about who is flying them and why. That’s where open source, and our lab, can help…..Through the STTR contract, researchers at Hidden Level, in partnership with the OSI lab, are leading a three-month study to assess the feasibility of combining publicly and commercially available information with its real-time UAS detection data.”
“The idea here is that we can locate drones in the air through the existing sensor technology, while also tapping into open source intelligence data derived from our lab, such as emergency responder broadcast traffic, news articles or any other relevant information that is available to the general public,” said Coulthart, quoted in the artlicle. “There is nothing like this that currently exists on the market — in terms of combining a drone sensor network with OSINT to help assess potential security risks.”
“The three-month feasibility study is running now, through August 7, with additional support from UAlbany’s Office for Innovation Development & Commercialization and the SUNY Research Foundation. If successful, the team next plans to create and test a software prototype.”
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(Image: A new drone detection software prototype combines Hidden Level’s existing sensor technology with open source intelligence data – State University at Albany).
