SparkCognition is a leading industrial artificial intelligence company; SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, is an airspace management system.  Together, the two have successfully deployed an AI-powered onboard system providing cybersecurity for drones.

As drones become an increasingly important tool in major industry and infrastructure, concerns over security have also become more important.  Like any computer carrying sensitive data, drones must be protected from cyber attacks: but drones provide unique challenges.

The DeepArmor product is designed to meet those challenges, protecting drones from zero-day attacks – attacks that exploit a security vulnerability before developers have realized it exists – during flight. “Equipped with SparkCognition’s DeepArmor® cybersecurity product, SkyGrid is the first airspace management system to enable drone protection powered by AI. This approach provides more advanced airspace security than traditional anti-malware reliant on signatures of known threats,” says a press release.

“In the near future, we’ll essentially have a network of flying computers in the sky, and just like the computers we use today, drones can be hacked if not secured properly,” said Amir Husain, CEO and founder of SparkCognition and SkyGrid. “In this emerging environment, traditional anti-malware technology won’t be adequate to detect these never-before-seen attacks. SkyGrid is taking a new, intelligent approach by using AI to more accurately detect and prevent cyberattacks from impacting a drone, a payload, or a ground station.”

“Integrated with SkyGrid’s airspace management system, AerialOS™, the DeepArmor product can be deployed directly on drone hardware to function even when network connectivity is impaired or non-existent,” says the release. “The AI protection defends drones from zero-day attacks by leveraging models trained on the DNA of malicious files instead of relying on a signature database.”

https://youtu.be/syX_NevNJX0

“We leveraged cutting-edge AI research and technology to build the DeepArmor product, which allows it to protect endpoints against 99.9% of never-before-seen threats,” said Sridhar Sudarsan, Chief Technology Officer at SparkCognition. “In addition, the product’s uniqueness lies in its ability to provide top-rate endpoint protection on the lowest footprint with minimal interference – all in varying degrees of connectivity. This is the true overarching security differentiator from which SkyGrid’s customers will see value.”

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry.  Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.

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