Securing Systems from Aerial Threats: Cybersecurity in the Drone Era

This research addresses the critical need for robust cybersecurity frameworks for drone operations as they begin to be essential components of sensitive applications including surveillance, logistics, and crisis response. The study proposes a multi layered defense framework motivated by the vulnerabilities drones introduce to cyber threats such as GPS spoofing, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, and unauthorized access. This framework was developed using MATLAB Simulink and it integrates many subsystems such as Drone Dynamics and Control, Communication Processing, GPS Spoofing Detection, Anomaly Detection, Threat Response, and Data Logging. The individual subsystems are responsible for focusing on the different aspects of the drone security domain, offering real time threat detection, operational logging and response. The framework was evaluated through simulated attack scenarios, it successfully detected and mitigated various cyber threats with high anomaly detection accuracy and no false positive. When threats were identified, emergency protocols such as Hover, Return Home, and Land modes served to protect the drone. A modular structure would enable subsystems to operate independently, while still contributing towards an integrated, resilient defense. This work showcases that a layer defense approach can provide amplified drone security with an adaptable and functional response to threat mitigation in both military and civilian drone implementations. Efficiencies in processing will be optimized and coverage to more threats will be increased in future improvements to increase drone resilience.