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Drone protection following attempted assassination of Venezuelan president

Posted at 5:20 PM, Aug 07, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-08 17:34:50-04

Following the attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, drone dangers have been up in the air. After all, it's hard to have security guards and body scanners protect us from the sky. 

"Those are designed for 2-dimensional threats, things moving on the ground, now as the average person has access to 3 dimensions through drones there is literally no security," said managing partner of Black Sage David Romero. 

Black Sage, an Idaho-based company, combats dangerous drones with their own technology, called counter-unmanned aircraft systems, or counter-UAS. Their purpose is to prevent attacks, like that in Venezuela. 

The infrared technology Black Sage uses can tell if the drones in the sky are merely just hobbyists like myself having fun, or if they post a serious threat.

Their technology can detect whether a drone has weapons attached. If the drone is deemed dangerous, an operator can disconnect the user from WiFi and reroute their GPS to avoid the planned attack. 

"Drones have GPS, and those are receiving signals from satellites that help it position itself, so when we disrupt those communications those drones have no sense of where it is," said Romero.  

Black Sage doesn't work in Venezuela, but they do have their devices all over the world, like in the Middle East, Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. They're also working here locally, protecting the Boise State football games and other events. 

 "This security is going to have to change everywhere, Boise included," said Romero. 

While some of this technology is only available for military and embassy use, it's still reassuring knowing there's some protection for us in the sky.