On the morning hours of a cool September day, two airplanes flew into the World Trade Center in Manhattan, one into the Pentagon, and one into a rural field in Pennsylvania. Everyone knows the story. The warning signs were there, but we were nonetheless caught unaware. Our security at airports: abysmal; our attitude that it could happen: arrogant.

Today, in 2012, manufacturers of predator drones and other such unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have begun pitching the use of their hardware to police departments. Within the policy world, there is even talk of using UAVs to help the US Border Patrol in its various duties.

At first, this might seem like a cost-effective way to help law enforcement keep us safer in the age of austerity. No longer will cops need to be on the beat, nor will agents need to be on the border with binoculars. Instead, manpower and resources can more effectively be used in areas where they are of immediate concern.

But like that cool September day in 2001, what if terrorists decided to hack into our UAVs, and convinced them to fly into buildings in San Diego, El Paso, or Laredo? What if UAVs were given coordinates to fly into and/or attack Ft. Bliss Army Base?

To test whether such an eventuality could occur, the Department of Homeland Security, the parent department of the US Border Patrol, conducted an exercise at the White Sands Testing Facility in New Mexico to see if their UAVs could be hacked into. A team from the University of Texas was invited, and “spoofed” an UAV, or in simpler language, confused the GPS coordinates on a UAV. They were able to informally control it by sending it the different messages and coordinates.

That really doesn’t scare, to be honest. I’m actually glad DHS decided to invite people to see if their equipment could be messed with. What did scare me was when Customs and Border Protection Spokesman Michael Friel said “that sort of hacking would not affect the security of its drones.”

Yet it’s already been proven to. Granted, a spoofed UAV attack wouldn’t cause the same level of death and destruction that a high-jacked jetliner could, but the mayhem presented within urban centers, or military bases near the border could nonetheless cause mass panic, which in turn could lead to more destruction and casualties.

The worst part though, is the arrogance of it all. The Department of Homeland Security invited students to come in and hack into their drones, and they did. Then for a spokesman to have the arrogance to say this sort of hacking couldn’t affect the security of its drones sounds a bit like “it couldn’t happen here.”

Sounds like something I heard when I went to bed Sept. 10, 2001.