Small Unmanned Air Systems – Enforcement Tool or Security Threat?

Brought to you by The Security, Privacy, Identity & Trust (SPIT) Group

The adoption of small unmanned air systems (SUAS) is proceeding rapidly in a number of areas with the potential benefits to society being many and continuing to grow.

Registration for this event is now closed.

About the event

This half-day London event, commences with a buffet lunch and will examine perspectives from a selection of the numerous areas in which SUAS implementation is expanding, including - civilian, law enforcement and military, plus applications such as surveying buildings, collecting video for media use, supporting law enforcement activities and providing situational awareness to dismounted soldiers.

While the design of some SUAS are led by the security or defence market, it can be considered to be closely rivalled by the technology available at the high end of the hobby market. Including autonomous, GPS-based guidance systems, real-time video streaming and significant payload capability, such devices may enable those with hostile intent to engage in a number of activities, ranging from unwarranted snooping to delivering threatening effects (which even if not genuine could still cause significant disruption).

This Security and Defence SIG event will analyse both sides of this issue, discussing what action could be taken to maximise the potential benefits that SUAS can add to society – while retaining the support of society – and at the same time limiting the threat of their misuse.

Perspectives shared will be:
1. User #1: ‘UAS as surveillance tool’ perspective
2. User #2: counter-terrorist, ‘UAS as threat’ perspective
3. Technical #1:
4. Technical #2:
5. Legal perspective

You can follow @cambwireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWSecurity.

Hosted by CMS

CMS is a pioneering firm with a distinctive approach to business law.

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Supported by KTN

The KTN is the UK'S innovation network. Connecting for Positive Change

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Agenda

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The information supplied below may be subject to change before the event.

13:00

Registration and Networking over Buffet Lunch

14:00

Introduction to Security & Defence SIG from Nicholas Hill, Plextek Consulting

14:10

Welcome from our supporter, Steve Gale of KTN

14:20

UAVs: flying into the legal headwind; Ross McKean, Partner, Data Protection Practice, Olswang

UAVs are multiplying and as their price point continues to drop a large consumer market is now in reach. They raise some challenging legal and regulatory issues and Brussels is planning new restrictions. In this session Ross McKean, the head of Olswang’s award winning data protection practice, will give a brief overview of the legal and regulatory landscape for UAVs in the UK and how to keep regulators and lawyers happy when flying them.

14:40

Q&A

14:45

Rapid design and manufacture of unmanned systems;Jim Scanlan, Professor of Aerospace Design, University of Southampton

This talk will provide an update on unmanned systems activities at the University following the flight in 2011 of the “worlds first printed aircraft”. It addresses the challenges of providing low cost reliable systems for unmanned air vehicles.

15:05

Q&A

15:10

Potential Emergency Service Applications; Alan Brooke, UAS Lead, CAST (Centre for Applied Science & Technology)

As with any novel technology Unmanned Systems present opportunities and challenges. This presentation will review their use to date and discuss a number of other areas where their adoption can have benefits across the range of emergency service operations.

15:30

Q&A

15:35

Refreshments and networking

16:05

Unmanned Air Systems as a threat; Counter-UAS SME (Subject Matter Expert), Dstl, UK Government

Please note that this speaker appears at the meeting strictly under the Chatham House Rule.
This presentation will review a number of recent UAS misuse incidents, look at the typical systems involved, categorise the types of misuse of most concern and outline the real-world risk involved. It will then go on to discuss the need for a proportionate response to the risk and outline some current UK Government initiatives.

16:25

Q&A

16:30

Airborne Monitoring of ground traffic behaviour for hidden threat assessment using a swarm of UAVs’; Antonios Tsourdos, Head of the Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, Institute of Aerospace Sciences, Cranfield University

Using a swarm of UAVs has been receiving attention for a variety of applications to take advantage of its inherent flexibility and versatility. The focus of this talk is airborne monitoring of ground traffic behaviour by multiple UAVs in order to detect disguised threats and then to notify the human commander about the potentially dangerous vehicles.

16:50

Q&A

16:55

Panel session with all speakers and KTN chaired by Nicholas Hill, Plextek Consulting

17:30

Complete evaluation forms and Event Closes

Speakers

Alan Brooke - Home Office

Ross McKean - Partner, DLA Piper LLP

Jim Scanlan

Antonios Tsourdos - Head of Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems, Cranfield University

SIG Champions

Zahid Ghadialy - Principal Analyst & Consultant, 3G4G

Zahid is a technologist with a deep understanding of architecting world-class mobile products and solutions. With over 20 years of experience in the telecom industry in various roles, he has been an evangelist for mobile and wireless technologies. Over the years he has accumulated a vast following on his blogs and social networks with simple explainer posts and videos.

His 3G4G blogs are widely read where he looks at different aspects of mobile technology and especially 5G and 6G nowadays, including the architecture, deployments, use cases, applications, etc. His YouTube channel is also very popular where he explains many new features expected as part of 5G in the future. While his style and content is unique, he also references many industry publications and provides slides that are very useful to view online.

He is also very active on Twitter under his @3G4GUK brand helping disseminate the benefits of 5G and why 5G will be needed in the long run. He covers a very wide portfolio of 5G related information that is hard to find otherwise.

Until recently, Zahid was a Senior Director looking at Technology & Innovation Strategy in Parallel Wireless. As a brand ambassador, he represented the company in various Open RAN discussions and also created tutorials on Open RAN and O-RAN which are being used as reference for new starters on the topic.

Richard Jacklin - Business Development - Commercial Lead, Plextek

Richard is the Commercial Lead for Plextek Services, helping customers design and produce highly innovative electronic, radar and radio communications enabled solutions. His career, now over 30 years, has included sales management, product management and engineering leadership in companies including Ericsson, Samsung, UL, Keysight, PPM and NI. He has presented and contributed to many forums including Cambridge Wireless, GSMA working groups, and Satellite Innovation Group. Richard graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a degree in Electronic Engineering, he was also awarded Chartered Engineer status and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Bob Oates - Associate Director, Cambridge Consultants

Bob Oates is a specialist in the interaction between safety and security for operational technology, critical infrastructure, and IoT devices. He works within the Engineering Assurance Team at Cambridge Consultants, ensuring that intelligent, AI-enabled systems are safe and secure. In addition to his academic background, Bob has over a decade of industrial experience working in the critical national infrastructure, defence, aerospace, nuclear, and maritime domains, including acting as the head of security for the development of the world’s first commercial remotely operated ship. He holds an Honorary Professorship in Safety and Security at De Montfort University.

Yiru Zhong - None

Yiru is an M2M/IoT market veteran with an industry research background and practical deployment experience. She understands the complexity of new service launches and the investigative nature of enterprise adoption trends. In her analyst past, she has launched two successful M2M/IoT research programmes, changed leadership minds on focussing on security, and managed an IoT platform validation programme. Her current role utilises her industry and IoT technology knowledge to accelerate enterprise adoption. She represents Soracom in the UK to lead conversations with start-ups, SMBs and enterprises on how to use IoT for their business. She is passionate about resolving commercial practicalities of IoT deployment and mostly building a positive conversation around IoT security.

Event Location

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Location info

Olswang LLP, 90 High Holborn, Greater London WC1V 6XX

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