The Sûreté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and even the Canadian army use cheap, easy-to-hack Chinese drones that have been banned by the United States because they could be used for espionage, a discovered our Bureau of Investigation.
The RCMP confirmed to us that they have 400 of these Chinese drones. The Sûreté du Québec also acquired “several”, without being able to quantify their exact number. Strategic ministries, such as Quebec Public Security, also use DJI drones (see down there).
The firm Da Jiang Innovation (DJI), which dominates the global drone sales market, has nevertheless been singled out several times in recent years. The US military has banned the use of DJI drones since 2017, and the company has been on the blacklist of companies that pose a national security risk in the United States since 2020 (see down there).
Photo Francis Halin
Since last May, Australian Defense has also grounded all its DJI drones.
The Chinese company is also criticized for its behavior on human rights. According to the United States, its drones were used to monitor Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province in 2017. The Ukrainian government also called on the Chinese giant in 2022 to stop collaborating with Russia.
- Listen to the press review commented by Alexandre Dubé via QUB :
On the defensive
Institutions that use DJI drones assure that they use this technology safely.
“The images collected are considered non-sensitive information,” said RCMP spokesperson Kim Chamberland.
“We work with these drones in a restricted manner, within the framework of specific operations,” also commented the spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec, Benoit Richard.
The Canadian army, which has a “limited number” of DJI drones, claims to have them to study their operation, but also uses them to take unclassified images.
Other organizations, such as Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board, have also indicated that they use these radars to produce aerial imagery.
For its part, the Quebec Ministry of Public Security claims not to see “any security risk in terms of espionage linked to the use it makes of the seven drones it has in its possession, either in the framework of field visits”.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police uses DJI drones, similar to this one, in its operations.
Transport Canada YouTube screenshot
The Canadian dunce
However, the use of DJI drones is not without risks, as demonstrated last March by a team from the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany.
The researchers announced that they were easily able to bypass security measures in the DJI drone software. According to them, it would be easy for a hacker or a malicious government to determine the exact location of a DJI drone, to modify its serial number or to circumvent the mechanisms which allow the authorities to follow its trajectory.
Canada, by using these cheap Chinese drones, is once again showing its weaknesses in terms of national security, according to the various experts consulted. However, a shift must be made if the Canadian government wants to be taken seriously, especially since DJI wants to sell it even more drones (see other text).
“We are on top of our business. There is a poor understanding of the risks. We simply go with the lowest compliant bidder, with those who cost the least.”
– ,
Photo COURTESY LUC LEFEBVRE
“Canada is technically in a cyber war against China. It is absurd that we are still so intensely dependent on our adversary, with whom we are actively in conflict, from a technological point of view […] Canada is still behind. This is also a big criticism of the other members of NATO and the Five Eyes (alliance of intelligence services): Canada manages in crisis instead of being proactive,” he continues.
Former officer of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and director of the Global Intelligence Knowledge Network, Neil Bisson, recalls that it is up to Canada to carry out the necessary verifications when allied countries report a problem.
“When the Canadian government looks to potentially purchase drones or cameras manufactured by countries that have issues with Canada, there must be in-depth research to understand the product software and its components,” he says.
With the collaboration of Francis Halin, Yves Lévesque and Chrystian Viens
The company wants to get closer to the Prime Minister’s office
The DJI company wants to be able to contact the office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and various ministries in order to sell more drones to the Canadian government.
The Chinese firm hired a lobbyist last October to promote the “value” its remotely piloted aircraft could bring to the government as well as the measures it has taken to “protect security.”
According to the registration in the Registry of Lobbyists, DJI wishes to approach various ministries, such as National Defense and Public Safety Canada, but also the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council Office.
The lobbyist hired by DJI, Dario Dimitriev, previously worked at the Israeli embassy and worked as “assistant to the Minister of Science and Sports, where he collaborated with stakeholders from several ministries and organizations,” we can say. read in his profile on the website of his employer, Loyalist Public Affairs.
We tried to contact him, but it was his business partner, Dan Mader, who answered our questions by email.
“We recently reconnected with federal government officials to discuss recent developments in DJI products, including advances in security and data protection […] DJI drones are already used by many government organizations across Canada in applications such as scientific research and search and rescue, and they look forward to continuing to produce products ideally suited to these applications. he writes.
The Registry of Lobbyists lists two communications with Public Safety Canada and Public Services and Procurement Canada since October.
No communication has taken place to date between DJI and the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We take into account all relevant considerations when evaluating meeting requests. We do not make speculative comments on possible invitations,” said Privy Council Office spokesperson Pierre-Alain Bujold on this subject.