According to e-mails posted by WikiLeaks, military contractors may want to do just that. Boeing and Hacking Team — a Milan-based company criticized for selling surveillance software to repressive governments — were in talks earlier this year to plant malware on drones to perform such activities, according to the e-mails, which were stolen from Hacking Team in July.

According to an e-mail that summarizes the contents of a meeting between the two companies, Boeing was searching for a "ruggedized" network injector "transportable by drone (!)."

Drone and network analysts offer a scenario about how this type of technology could work:

A highly desired al-Qaeda operative is on the lam, hiding out in a bungalow in the foothills of some not-so-allied country, which may or may not be protecting him from U.S. detection.