New DJI Security Audit! Is This the END of the DJI Ban?

DJI Security Audit: Debunking Myths and Ensuring Data Safety

If there was anything that could ever put an end to the efforts to ban DJI in America, this is it. I’m going to make this video as simple as possible so when you share it with your lawmakers, they will be able to fully understand that everything they’ve been told is a lie.

Did you know there’s only one of these in the world right now? I’m thinking about making another one and giving it to one of you guys. I’ll tell you how you have a chance to win one of these in just a few minutes.

Understanding FTI Consulting

First, let me define a couple of things to help set this up. You first need to understand who FTI Consulting is. FTI is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk, and resolve disputes. They are a global consulting firm with almost 8,000 employees in 87 cities across 33 Countries, and they are headquartered right here in America in Maryland.

What is a Security Audit?

Secondly, even though most people probably understand what a security audit is, I want to touch on it briefly. A security audit is a comprehensive assessment of an organization’s information systems. Security audits are crucial to developing risk assessment plans and mitigation strategies for organizations dealing with sensitive and confidential data. These companies hire third-party firms to examine everything they do and make sure they’re doing everything correctly to keep their data secure because if they aren’t, these companies could go out of business.

DJI’s Data Security Audit Results

Now that we have those things defined, we can talk about DJI and the results of the Data Security audit that FTI just completed on them.

According to DroneXL, the audit employed a rigorous methodology, capturing and analyzing network activity using commercially available tools and methods. FTI conducted various flight scenarios including idle state collection, flying collection, and testing with reduced entitlements.

In simpler terms, this highly-rated independent US-based organization dug as deep as they could into a certain number of new DJI products to see how well the information remained secure while they were being used, and they examined everything.

Key Findings of the Audit

1. All first-party data transmissions stayed right here in the United States, nowhere else.
2. They confirmed that DJI uses certificate pinning, which verifies client-server connection through authentication and transport layer security, ensuring privacy between multiple applications.
3. DJI’s Restricted Network Mode allows users to switch things like map service off, which prevents any location sharing with third-party applications.
4. Most importantly, Local Data Mode for commercial users, First Responders, law enforcement, hobbyists – pretty much everyone that knows anything about drones – has been screaming from the rooftops about DJI’s local data mode. The ability to unequivocally eliminate outbound traffic from DJI drones works. No first-party or third-party traffic was found.

Implications for DJI Users and Lawmakers

Senators, congressmen, users of DJI drones can fly in local data mode, making it impossible for anyone anywhere to collect any data.

Now, that’s a bit of hyperbole, I know. I’m certain there will be some IT nerd in the comments losing their ever-loving mind, telling us how nothing is unequivocally 100% secure and any good hacker could see whatever they want to see.

But guess what? That’s the case for pretty much everything everywhere in the world that’s connected to the internet.

The bottom line is DJI is not collecting data. DJI is not sharing sensitive information with the Chinese government. Everything you’ve been told is a backhanded effort to bolster the American Drone Industry.

The Need for American Competition

No one denies that we need American competition. It truly would be beneficial to have an option that was as good as DJI that’s made in the United States.

But the best way for it to happen, and the most responsible way, should be through good old-fashioned American ingenuity and not by legislation.

There’s absolutely no reason to take the tools away from working Americans that allow them to do their job efficiently and safely while we move forward with American options.

DJI’s Efforts and Future Implications

DJI has had several audits over the years, proving their efforts that go above and beyond to provide data security for their users. The issue is they were a little bit outdated, so they were an easy target for the supporters of any ban.

But now in 2024, we have unequivocal evidence from an independent examination based in America that any effort to ban the sale and use of DJI products in America is irresponsible and has been guided by people with ulterior motives.

Now, do I have motives of my own? Sure, I do. I use DJI drones to make a living. I make money because of DJI, and if we lose DJI, I can’t make money. So yes, I have motives, but the issue is so do many others. Over 6,000 different organizations have come out and spoken against a DJI ban.

Even though there continues to be proof that it’s safe to use DJI products, there is no denying that government agencies should still take precautions to ensure that sensitive American data remains secure. Things like no-fly zones and geofencing are simple methods that have been in place for a number of years, and I’m certain they’ve been more effective than most people realize.

By continuing to perfect that technology and conducting regular audits on all manufacturers, Americans that use drones to do their job can be pretty confident in their security.

Call to Action

As drone enthusiasts and professional users, continue to write and call your lawmakers. This new report and information should be in the first few sentences of the discussion. Please keep reaching out to your lawmakers, join the Drone Advocacy Alliance, share this video on your social media, and include a link to this audit report when reaching out to lawmakers.

I’ll put a link to the article from DroneXL down in the video description. He really breaks it down easily if you want to share that because our lawmakers don’t have a whole lot of time to read through a whole bunch of jargon. They want to read a very succinct synopsis of what was discovered, and DroneXL did a really good job of that. So share that article as well.

This is really good news, but I’ll never be fully confident that DJI is here to stay in America because there will always be people trying to ban them. However, this latest report really gives me some hope.

Conclusion and Giveaway

Comment below: Does this report make you feel more at ease about a ban, or will it do nothing to stop the effort to get rid of DJI in America? I’d love to know what you think.

Also, be sure to click subscribe because if you want to win a 51 Drones Yeti, you have to be a subscriber. I’d love to have you join us and be a part of the community. So what else do you need to do? Be subscribed, comment anything below with a way to contact you like a social media handle or your email, and then share this video as well. Please share it on your social media.

Finally, watch one of these recommended videos over here on the left-hand side of your screen. Once this video gets to 10,000 views, I’ll randomly pick a winner and I’ll ship them a custom-made 51 Drones Yeti. Also, this Giveaway is for anyone worldwide.

Remember, don’t fall for scams. I will never charge anyone a single dime for any of my giveaways.

Thank you for watching today, and as always, fly safe and fly smart.