In the Time of Pandemic, Drone Delivery Lands

 In this time of global pandemic, greater drone adoption is driven not by technological advancement, but by the utility of drones. When major players such as Walmart and Amazon throw their hats in the ring, one can count on fast adoption of new ideas. For example, the retailing giant Walmart has undertaken  drone trials, one to deliver select grocery and household essentials, and another to test delivery of certain health and wellness products. They have expended into drone delivery of at-home COVID-19 self-collection kits, to provide  contactless, testing options. And Amazon inches closer to FAA approval.

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Dire times drive innovation. In this instance, the innovation is not in technology, but in policy. While some argue that drone technology wasn’t mature enough to be trusted at large scale – and cultural questions around privacy, noise and annoyance have hampered the expansion of flights – a societal and governmental shift in evaluating acceptable risk is driving greater implementation. With air travel down nearly 90% and dramatically fewer cars on the road due to shelter-in-place orders, the risks drones might present in the air and on the ground are significantly reduced. Meanwhile, pressure has been mounting to streamline drone use to deliver vital goods, support social distancing and enable essential workers to operate with greater efficiency and efficacy.

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The Federal Aviation Administration has approved American Robotics to become the first company to operate smart drones without needing on-site pilots or spotters. American Robotics, an industrial drone developer based out of Massachusetts, will still need a human pilot overseeing each flight’s takeoff remotely, so the process isn’t technically 100% autonomous, as the Verge notes. Still, the decision brings the U.S. one step closer to seeing fully automated commercial drone flights.

Air Mobility is the Key Phrase when it comes to Autonomous Flying Taxi's

As many onlookers congregated, Chinese drone maker Ehang showed off its autonomous air taxi in the US. The all-electric two-seater took flight for five minutes above a test track south of Raleigh, North Carolina

As the world’s leading autonomous aerial vehicle (“AAV”) technology platform company and the UAM industry pioneer, EHang has proprietarily developed a complete suite of intelligent aerial logistics solutions, including the EH216L heavy-lift AAV for short-to-medium-haul aerial transport, the Falcon medium-sized AAV for urban express delivery, the unmanned aircraft systems, take-off and landing control sites and intelligent self-express service machines. With abundant operating experience, service workflow and practical data, EHang made significant contribution to the groundbreaking for the Standard based on its industry expertise and valuable insights. 

EHang is based in Guangzhou, a major city in southern China. Its EHang 216 drone has carried out demo flights in Seoul, and the aircraft has also been recently tested in Canada at a special drone-testing facility in Quebec.

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Seditionists Had Unfettered Access to Congressional IT Systems

After Wednesday's invasion by protesters, America's Capitol building is now grappling with "the process of securing the offices and digital systems after hundreds of people had unprecedented access to them," 

Rioters could have bugged congressional offices, exfiltrated data from unlocked computers, or installed malware on exposed devices. In the rush to evacuate the Capitol, some computers were left unlocked and remained accessible by the time rioters arrived. And at least some equipment was stolen; Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said in a video late Wednesday that intruders took one of his office's laptops off a conference table...

Former Senate sergeant at arms Frank Larkin, who retired as Senate sergeant at arms in 2018, adds that cybersecurity is the next priority after physical security. In spite of this, the mob Wednesday had ample opportunities to steal information or gain device access if they wanted to. And while the Senate and House each build off of their own shared IT framework, ultimately each of the 435 representatives and 100 senators runs their own office with their own systems. This is a boon to security in the sense that it creates segmentation and decentralization; getting access to Nancy Pelosi's emails doesn't help you access the communications of other representatives. But this also means that there aren't necessarily standardized authentication and monitoring schemes in place. Larkin emphasizes that there is a baseline of monitoring that IT staffers will be able to use to audit and assess whether there was suspicious activity on congressional devices. But he concedes that representatives and senators have varying levels of cybersecurity competence and hygiene.

It's also true that potentially exposed data at the Capitol on Wednesday would not have been classified, given that the mob had access only to unclassified networks. But congressional staffers are not subject to Freedom of Information Act obligations and are often much more candid in their communications than other government officials. Security and intelligence experts also emphasize that troves of unclassified information can still reveal sensitive or even classified information when combined... Kelvin Coleman, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, who formerly worked in the Department of Homeland Security and National Security Council... adds, though, that for now the most important thing congressional IT staffers can do is account for which devices were stolen and begin a mass effort to reset passwords, add multifactor authentication to any accounts that don't already have it, wipe and reimage hard drives when practical, and comb monitoring logs for signs of access or exfiltration.

There is more information at Wired.