Data Security for Critical-Infrastructure Drone Inspections
What to ask providers about data flows, cloud uploads, encryption, retention and ownership before they capture your assets.
Why it matters
Inspection imagery can reveal asset condition, location, access routes and vulnerabilities. CISA treats unmanned aircraft systems as information and communications technology and recommends secure-by-design and Zero Trust approaches, including encryption, local-data modes where available, controlled network access and protection of data in transit and at rest.
Questions to ask every provider
How do aircraft and controller data flow, and are there automatic cloud uploads? Where is data hosted? Is it encrypted at rest and in transit? Who can access it, including subcontractors? How long is it kept and how is it deleted? Who is the incident-response contact? Do you own the data and can the provider reuse it? Is customer data used for AI training? Can the aircraft operate offline or in local-data mode?
Contract terms
Put data ownership, permitted use, retention, deletion, breach notification and subcontractor controls into the contract. If your organisation restricts certain aircraft makes or requires specific security standards, state this in your quote request.
How this directory handles your request
We do not store raw inspection imagery. Share general locations in your first request and release exact coordinates and drawings only to the providers you shortlist.
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Describe your project once and get quotes from suitable inspection providers.