S 473 Introduced
Drone Security
Last month, Sen Scott (R,FL) introduced S 473, the American Security Drone Act of 2023. The bill includes various measures to reduce the use of drones made in certain countries (primarily China) from being bought, used, or operated by agencies of the Federal government. It also outlines a ‘government-wide’ policy on drone acquisition, which includes cybersecurity language. No spending is authorized by this bill.
Definitions
Section 2 of the bill provides definitions for three key terms, two of which are defined by reference to existing statutory definitions. The remaining term, ‘covered foreign entity’ specifically includes ‘any entity domiciled in the People's Republic of China’, but it includes processes for adding other countries or companies by the DHS Secretary.
Prohibitions
Section 3 of the bill would prohibit the head of executive agency from procuring “any covered unmanned aircraft system that is manufactured or assembled by a covered foreign entity, which includes associated elements related to the collection and transmission of sensitive information (consisting of communication links and the components that control the unmanned aircraft) that enable the operator to operate the aircraft in the National Airspace System.” Certain exceptions are allowed.
Section 4 of the bill would prohibit any Federal department or agency from operating “a covered unmanned aircraft system manufactured or assembled by a covered foreign entity.” Certain exceptions are allowed.
Section 5 of the bill would prohibit any funds awarded through a contract, grant, or cooperative agreement being used to procure or operate an “unmanned aircraft system that is manufactured or assembled by a covered foreign entity”. Certain exceptions are allowed.
Section 6 of the bill would prohibit the use of government issued purchase cards from being used to purchase “unmanned aircraft system from a covered foreign entity.” No exceptions are allowed.
Cybersecurity for Authorized Systems
Section 9 of the bill would require OMB to establish a government-wide policy for the procurement of an unmanned aircraft system:
For non-Department of Defense and non-intelligence community operations, and
Through grants and cooperative agreements entered into with non-Federal entities.
That policy would include specifications to address the risks associated with processing, storing, and transmitting Federal information in an unmanned aircraft system. This would include:
Protections to ensure controlled access to an unmanned aircraft system.
Protecting software, firmware, and hardware by ensuring changes to an unmanned aircraft system are properly managed, including by ensuring an unmanned aircraft system can be updated using a secure, controlled, and configurable mechanism.
Cryptographically securing sensitive collected, stored, and transmitted data, including proper handling of privacy data and other controlled unclassified information.
Appropriate safeguards necessary to protect sensitive information, including during and after use of an unmanned aircraft system.
Appropriate data security to ensure that data is not transmitted to or stored in non-approved locations.
The ability to opt out of the uploading, downloading, or transmitting of data that is not required by law or regulation and an ability to choose with whom and where information is shared when it is required.
Moving Forward
Scott and two of his six cosponsors {Sen Blumenthal (D,CT) and Sen Hawley (R,MO)} are members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This should mean that there is sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee.
The main problem facing this bill is the fact that the government is finding more and more uses for non-military unmanned aircraft and the largest manufacturer of these craft is a Chinese company. Finding the requisite unmanned aircraft from non-Chinese manufacturers is currently difficult. A bill like this is needed to provide domestic manufacturers a much-needed edge to favorably compete with the Chinese, but it will take time to build up the requisite capacity.
It will be interesting to see how this bill works its way through the Committee backrooms.