Two of the top-ranking state Senate Democrats have sent a letter to municipal leaders warning of the dangers of drones made by Chinese and Russian firms. Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said municipal leaders might not understand the risk.
"At some point the software gets uploaded. Even if they say it doesn't, it does," Duff said. "What we've seen in other states with these Chinese-made drones is where they have hacked in and frozen electrical systems in Texas hospitals, schools and, according to the FBI, this is all about when China invades Taiwan, which sounds so conspiratorial."
"That almost sounds ridiculous. But this is what we're hearing from the FBI," Duff said.
The letter, obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media Group, and sent by Duff and Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney, D-New Haven, to Connecticut Conference of Municipalities CEO Joe DeLong and Connecticut Council of Small Towns Executive Director Betsy Gara, details some of the ways foreign-made drones have been used to gain access to Internet-connected systems used by towns and cities across the United States.
According to Duff and Looney's letter, "drones manufactured in China and Russia are sending proprietary information back to China and Russia through backdoors installed in the drones."
Gara said she is taking the senators' concerns seriously, but is wary of municipal agencies incurring any additional cost.
"Local law enforcement and firefighters have invested considerable funds in purchasing drones, many of which have been manufactured by Chinese," she said. "To replace those would be cost prohibitive. We're looking at opportunities to ensure that the drones are used in such a way that they don't pose cybersecurity risks."
Duff said the goal is not to destroy existing drones, but to prevent additional purchases of drones made in Russia and China.
"We want to make sure that we stop buying them and when the lifecycle of these current drones are done, they don't buy more Chinese drones," Duff said. "I'm not sure that people understand the severity or the real risk of having these drones."
"We're not saying take a hammer to them tomorrow," he said.
The proposed ban, included as a section of a larger bill, would prevent any public agency in Connecticut from purchasing "any small unmanned aircraft system assembled or manufactured" from the "People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation and any governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof."
Michael Shabenas, fire chief at the Dayville Fire Company in Killingly, spoke against the ban during public testimony. He said his fire company uses a drone made by DJI, specifically mentioned in the senators' letter.
"Our drones are used for public safety purposes including, but not limited to, structural fires, wildland/forest fires, and search and rescue operations," Shabenas said. "Losing that operational capability would be detrimental to our ability to protect life and provide for incident stabilization and property conservation."
DJI, one of the world's largest drone manufacturers, is based in Shenzhen, China. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Defense listed DJI as a "Chinese military company" working with the People's Liberation Army. DJI issued a statement saying the company "has never designed or manufactured military-grade equipment, and has never marketed or sold its products for military use in any country."
In response to concerns heard at the public hearing, Duff and Looney's letter said that the threat to local and statewide security is not "overblown."
"We would like to point out that the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Congress, President Biden and former President Trump have all stated that these devices do pose significant risks and have implemented policies to ban these drones," the letter said. "Moreover, it is the drone hardware itself that presents the security risk, as the security software updates for Chinese-made drones are controlled by Chinese entities that can introduce unknown data collection and transmission capabilities without the user's awareness."
Connecticut would not be the first state to ban the purchase or use of Chinese and Russian drones. As of April 5, no state or municipal agencies in Florida may use drones made in a "foreign country of concern," including China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, North Korea and Syria, among others.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Florida will allocate $25 million to help local agencies buy new drones. Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have also enacted similar measures.
Gara said state funding could make the request feasible.
"Funding would be essential if the ban goes forward because the use of drones has proven very effective in searching for and rescuing people and responding to other emergencies. They've become a tool that is relied on very heavily by our communities," Cofrancesco said. "But at the same time you have to be very concerned if these are used in such a way that they can subject infrastructure to sabotage or allow the use of data to be used in nefarious ways."
While Duff said state funding might happen, "I'm not sure it's necessary."
"We're not saying if we pass that provision in the bill that they have to then scrap them all and start from scratch," he said. "We're just saying you can't buy any more and then when the other ones stop working, you can't buy Chinese ones anymore."
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the name of the person interviewed from the Connecticut Council of Small Towns. It was, in fact, Betsy Gara, who is the Executive Director.
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