The next major cybersecurity failure will not start in a data center.
It will start when a drone loses its connection.
Nearly 800,000 drones are registered in the United States, and many more operate without registration. They fly over wildfire zones, inspect power lines and pipelines, patrol borders, support disaster response, and operate near stadiums, chemical plants, and military installations. Governors are now asking Congress for expanded authority to respond to drone threats over critical infrastructure, a signal that unmanned systems are no longer viewed as hobby technology. They are a public safety reality.
As drones become embedded in critical operations, one vulnerability is becoming impossible to ignore.
The weakest link is not the airframe, the camera, or the autonomy software. It’s the network that connects drones to operators, command systems, edge compute, and cloud infrastructure across unstable and often hostile environments.
This is why networking platforms like ZeroTier are increasingly part of serious drone deployments. Not because they build drones, but because they provide the encrypted, identity-based connectivity layer that keeps fleets operating when networks degrade, fail, or are actively interfered with. In defense and security contexts, operators now expect networking that has been battlefield tested and capable of self healing under link loss rather than collapsing when a path or gateway fails.
When Connectivity Fails, Missions Fail
Imagine a drone reconnaissance mission supporting a wildfire response.
The drone launches on private cellular connectivity. As it moves deeper into the burn area, coverage degrades and it fails over to public networks. Smoke and congestion introduce packet loss. The video feed stutters. Telemetry lags. Command traffic competes with sensor data.
Now add a second failure.
A centralized gateway handling fleet connectivity drops. Every drone routed through it loses secure command and control. Operators lose situational awareness. Ground crews make decisions with delayed or incomplete information.
Nothing about this scenario is unusual. It already happens.
In many deployments, connectivity is treated as a convenience rather than a security dependency. When links fail, systems degrade unpredictably. When gateways go down, entire fleets go dark.
This is not just an availability issue. It is a security problem.
When Connectivity is Compromised, Risk Escalates Fast
Now consider a hostile scenario.
A drone fleet operating near critical infrastructure relies on static VPN tunnels and a flat network. One ground station is compromised. From there, an attacker pivots laterally, gaining access to telemetry and command channels across the fleet.
The drones are intact. The firmware is signed. The payloads are trusted.
The network is not segmented.
One compromise now threatens the entire operation.
In environments where jamming, spoofing, and interception are expected, this outcome is not theoretical. It is the predictable result of architectures designed for stable networks and trusted links.
Why Traditional Network Security Breaks in the Air
Most enterprise security models rely on assumptions drones violate by design.
VPNs assume predictable routes. Firewalls assume fixed perimeters. Gateways assume traffic flows through known choke points. Drones operate across shifting links, changing locations, and contested networks where failure is routine.
In real drone operations, connectivity must survive network degradation, forced handoffs between cellular and satellite links, partial node failure, and active interference. Modern missions already require vertical handoffs between terrestrial networks and both low earth orbit and geostationary satellite links mid-flight, without dropping command sessions or exposing new attack surfaces.
If security collapses when connectivity changes, it was never resilient.
Drone Fleets Are Distributed Systems
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is treating drones as individual devices.
A modern drone deployment is a distributed system. Dozens or hundreds of autonomous nodes communicate simultaneously with operators, ground control systems, edge compute, and cloud platforms. The system must continue functioning even when parts of it fail.
That reframes the security problem entirely. The real questions now look like this:
• Which drones are allowed to communicate with which systems
• How access changes dynamically as connectivity shifts
• What happens when a node is degraded or compromised
• How blast radius is contained when something goes wrong
These are distributed security problems. They just happen to play out in the air.
Identity Becomes the Control Plane
In airborne systems, location is meaningless and networks cannot be trusted. Identity is often the only stable control plane left.
Applying zero-trust principles to drone fleets means enforcing authentication, authorization, and segmentation at the device level. Trust must persist regardless of how or where a drone connects.
This is where identity based overlay networking becomes foundational. Overlay networks create a secure fabric above whatever connectivity is available, allowing drones to maintain encrypted, authenticated communication across cellular, satellite, and mesh links without forcing traffic through brittle centralized gateways.
As fleets grow more heterogeneous, security teams increasingly require networking layers that are hardware and vendor agnostic, so trust is enforced consistently across mixed platforms rather than bolted on per device.
When the Network Holds, Everything Changes
Return to the wildfire scenario.
The drone loses its primary link. Secure sessions persist. Traffic reroutes automatically. Command and control remains intact. The video feed degrades slightly but does not disappear.
If a node fails, it is isolated. If interference increases, alternate paths take over. Operators remain in control.
Nothing about the drone changes.
The difference is the network.
A secure networking platform like ZeroTier fits this reality by operating as infrastructure rather than an application layer. It treats connectivity as hostile by default and identity as the foundation of trust, enabling secure multi path communication, segmentation, and failover without requiring changes to underlying hardware or radios.
This Is Already the New Normal
Public safety agencies deploy drones when communications infrastructure is damaged or overloaded. Energy operators rely on drones for inspection across remote terrain. Military and security organizations operate unmanned systems in environments where jamming and spoofing are expected.
At the same time, policymakers are acknowledging the scale of the problem. With hundreds of thousands of drones already in the air, state leaders are pushing for expanded authority to address drone threats over critical infrastructure. The risk is no longer hypothetical.
The Shift Ahead
Drones are only the beginning.
Autonomous vehicles, robotics, and edge AI systems are all moving outside traditional enterprise boundaries while remaining deeply networked. As systems become more mobile and autonomous, security can no longer depend on fixed infrastructure or trusted networks.
It has to move with the system itself.
In 2026, drones are not becoming critical infrastructure because they fly. They are becoming critical infrastructure because they connect. When connectivity fails or is compromised, the consequences are immediate and visible.
The next major cybersecurity incident will not be a breach notification.
It will be a mission that never completes.
