An Investigation into Counter Drones Digital Forensics Aided by Remote Identification

While drones are presenting numerous benefits, they also could be misused by nefarious actors involved in incidents caused by airspace intrusion in restricted areas, unauthorised surveillance, smuggling contraband, espionage, cyber-attacks (GPS spoofing, malware injection, denial of service DoS, video feed manipulation, wardriving, physical tampering, naval piracy etc.), weaponization etc. Counter drones are crucial, but they don’t solve all the airspace traffic problems. To address holistically the technical, legal, and political challenges posed by drones and enhance the overall airspace security, aviation authorities around the globe have taken various actions for introducing regulatory measures, some of them being based on introducing the remote identification (RID) for drones. The UK is taking steps towards assessing, and if agreed, implementing an RID system. RID enables the in-flight real-time identification, showing information referring to the drone’s serial number, location, the pilot’s identity etc. This chapter aims to offer an insight of the role of RID in the drone digital forensics and countering rogue drones, by combining knowledge of drones, counter-drones, digital forensics, and remote identification and showing how regulatory measures and technology can work together to deliver responsible and secure use of drones in our continuously developing world.