The recent Homeland Security Report also claims the Chinese government is possibly using information acquired from DJI systems as a way to target assets they are planning to purchase.
“A large family-owned wine producer in California purchased DJI UAS to survey its vineyards and monitor grape production. Soon afterwards, Chinese companies began purchasing vineyards in the same area. According to the SOI, it appeared the companies were able to use DJI data to their own benefit and profit.”
DJI started offering clients a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) infrared scanner to use with its UAS.
“The NDVI picked up reflective images of leaves to calculate the nitrogen levels of plants. The device provided the user with details such as how much nitrogen to add to the soil to optimize plant growth. It also collected information on the location and lifecycle stages of food.”
As of May 2017, DJI’s only customers using the NDVI scanner were wine producers along the coast of California; however, the scanner would work with cash crops.
“SIP Los Angeles assesses with low confidence if the cash crops industry began using the scanner, it could allow China the opportunity to influence the cash crop market and futures.”
Essentially SIP Los Angeles believes DJI could be collecting sensitive intel that the Chinese government could use to conduct physical or cybernetic attacks against the United States. Similarly, China could in turn provide that information “to terrorist organizations, hostile non-state entities, or state-sponsored groups to coordinate attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure.”
The UAS capture close-up imagery and GPS information on water systems, rail systems, hazardous material storage systems, and construction of highways, bridges, and rails. If sabotage is not the end goal, someone is certainly getting a leg up on the real estate market.
In a statement on the company’s website, DJI officials denied any wrongdoing and blamed the access of an AWS server repository by “unauthorized parties” on developers who were terminated for “inexcusable” behavior. The company also claims that accusations of threatening and/or silencing a participant in the DJI Bug Bounty System are false.
Source: Flying
Of course. They have to deny it. Just like they have to release the data when their government says “Hand it over”. No difference in the U.S. except our government PAYS Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. for all that info you put into your phone apps. Illegal spying or wire tapping hassles solved!