Employment of uncrewed systems in attacks on critical infrastructure: a hybrid threat perspective. Security challenges related to recent developments in technology.

Abstract

Background The uncrewed systems, known colloquially as drones are nowadays widely used in various roles, including strictly civilian, law enforcement and military. The pace of technological development is high, following modern technologies, like artificial intelligence. Due to the growing threat to critical infrastructure that includes physical attacks, a fundamental question arises: how the development of uncrewed systems transforms the threat to critical infrastructure. Methods Historical analysis of historical cases of uncrewed system development and employment was used to describe evolution of said systems. For assessment of possible threat to critical infrastructure, a scenario – based analysis was conducted. Seven scenarios, divided into three groups were described as typical contemporary scenarios of uncrewed system use. For assessment of influence of new and emerging technologies especially artificial intelligence, three further scenarios were analyzed. Results and Conclusions Scenario – based analysis show that the uncrewed systems has shown that evolution of uncrewed system, especially use of artificial intelligence increases potential threats to critical infrastructure, due to growing capabilities. Therefore, it is recommended that future research work on countering such type of threat is required.