An investigative report by the Journal de Montreal pointed out that the Sûreté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and even the Canadian Army are using Chinese drones that are cheap and easy to be hacked.
RCMP confirms it has 400 Chinese drones. Quebec provincial police also said there were several, but could not give an exact number. Quebec's Ministry of Public Safety also uses DJI drones.
Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec).
Quebec Provincial Police (Sûreté du Québec).
Photo: Radio-Canada/Martin Bilodeau
DJI dominates the global drone sales market but has come under repeated fire in recent years. The U.S. military has banned the use of DJI drones since 2017; the company has been included in the U.S. national security risk company blacklist starting in 2020. The United States claims that DJI drones were used to monitor Uyghurs in Xinjiang in 2017.
The Ukrainian government also called on DJI to stop cooperation with Russia in 2022. Since May last year, the Australian Department of Defense has also banned the flight of all DJI drones.
Canadian agency sees no safety risk
However, Canadian agencies using DJI drones say there are no safety risks from their use.
RCMP spokesperson Kim Chamberland said the images collected by the drones were not sensitive information.
Benoit Richard, spokesman for the Quebec Provincial Police, said the use of drones will be limited and will only be used in specific operations.
The Canadian Armed Forces, which says it only has a small number of DJI drones, says it is only used to study how the drones work and to take unclassified images.
Other organizations, including Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board, have also said they use DJI drones for aerial imagery.
Quebec's Ministry of Public Security said it used the department's seven DJI drones for field inspections and did not believe there was a spy security risk.
Not without risk
However, a research team from the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany proved in March this year that using DJI drones is not impossible. risk.
Researchers say DJI drone security software can be easily bypassed. Hackers or organizations with malicious intentions can easily determine the location of a drone, change its serial number, or prevent users from tracking its trajectory.
Some experts believe that Canada's use of these cheap Chinese drones once again shows its weakness in national security.
