Drones are introducing “three-dimensional” security risks

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird…It’s a plane…It’s a…drone?

During a March 23 panel at RSAC 2026, Airspace Defense CEO Jaz Banga told the crowd that the security landscape is undergoing a fundamental change: While the focus has previously been on “two-dimensional threats” (i.e., hackers attempting to gain access to systems), drones are now presenting “three-dimensional” ones involving the airspace around data center facilities and other public venues.

Fly past. Part of the problem comes from the lack of oversight for the unmanned aerial vehicles, Banga said, adding that there is currently “no DMV for drones.”

“All registrations are voluntary with the [Federal Aviation Administration], and so we have no idea what’s going on in the air above us,” Banga said during the panel. For example, he added, there are more than 14,000 anonymous drone flights occurring monthly in New York City alone.

Beyond the issue of not knowing who’s piloting them, drones also present a growing physical security risk, Banga added. In March, drone strikes launched by Iran as part of the US-Israel War damaged two Amazon Web Services data center facilities in the United Arab Emirates, along with one in Bahrain.

“This is something that is now no longer in the realm of being admired as a problem. It’s now a problem that’s real here, locally,” Banga said.

“You could have the best cameras, you could have the best facial recognition, the best metal detectors in the world, but you can just duct-tape a gun to a drone and fly it and it defeats all of your…security systems,” he added.

Behind the flight. Drones also present new security risks for the organizations operating them. Tom Patterson, Accenture’s global lead for emerging technology security, told IT Brew in a post-conference interview that drones are largely under-encrypted and thus vulnerable to hackers.

“If it connects, if it collects, if it communicates, it’s a cyber asset, and therefore, it has to be managed like the rest of your cyber portfolio,” Patterson said.

Stay aware. Patterson told us that organizations can stay secure by understanding what’s in their airspace. He said companies can get better insight into this by using radio frequency scanning, a type of technology capable of detecting and identifying drones.

“You can then sort of monitor what’s going on,” Patterson said. “You can listen to their drones, just like they can listen to yours, and you can start to piece together what’s actually happening.”