Gps Jamming

[J.O.]

This guy didn't even mean to disrupt aviation. He was just trying to stop his employer from tracking him. What happens when someone does want to disrupt aviation? Will our heavy reliance on GPS come back to bite us?

Edit - stupid auto-correct changed GPS to Gos in the title.

NJ Man Faces Fine for Disrupting Airport Satellite


NEWARK, N.J. August 9, 2013 (AP) - A New Jersey man faces tens of thousands of dollars in fines after regulators say he interfered with a satellite system at one of the nation's busiest airports while masking his whereabouts from his employer.

The Federal Communications Commission says Gary Bojczak admitted he installed a jamming device in his company-owned pickup to thwart his employer's GPS.

The FCC says the jamming device interfered with a satellite system that enhanced navigation signals that used GPS data to aid aircraft approaching, departing and on the ground at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Officials say Bojczak surrendered the jamming device after his vehicle was stopped at the airport in 2012.

His faces nearly $32,000 in fines after the FCC found he unlawfully operated an illegal GPS jammer and interfered with authorized communications.

[Innuendo]

I think he should be recognized for exposing the vulnerability.

If the system is not hardened enough against as soft a threat as this

should it be relied on to the extent that it is?

[conehead]

I wonder if he used something like this?

http://www.cellphone-jammers.org/3-band-gps-phone-jammer-p-243.html

I wonder how he got caught? Very interesting....

[Don Hudson]

In terms of risk analysis and management it would be difficult for anyone to name an industry which does not rely upon GPS technologies. The risk is certainly to life and property but also is economic/financial.

So far, only GLONASS, the Russian system which is independent of the U.S. satellite system, is global and fully operational. There are five other systems but all are limited to certain areas.

[inchman]

It's one thing to jam a signal... but these guys have proven that you can actually spoof a GPS receiver into reporting a wrong position.

A spoofing signal contains information consistent with the real signal from one of the GPS satellites, but alters the apparent distance between that satellite and the receiver. As a result, the 3D quadrangulation process used to determine the location of the receiver will give the wrong answer and that answer will be wrong in a predictable manner. In other words, the apparent location and course of a GPS-guided vehicle can be changed nearly at will with rather simple equipment.

Gizmag article

Not sure how fast they can change the apparent position or how close they have to be and how many satellites they would have to spoof, but it definitely has some potential implications on our business that need to be addressed, or at least, investigated.

Does GPS have to be backed up with IRS on commercial aircraft? It would seem to make sense....

[boestar]

The GPS signal used for civilian operation is not encrypted in any way. The signal can be spoofed as mentioned above and if the signal from the "Spoof" transmitter is stronger than the original signal then it will take precedence over the weaker signal since the GPS looks for the Satellites with the best signal. Definately a dangerous thing.

[Innuendo]

"The GPS signal used for civilian operation is not encrypted in any way. The signal can be spoofed as mentioned above and if the signal from the "Spoof" transmitter is stronger than the original signal then it will take precedence over the weaker signal since the GPS looks for the Satellites with the best signal. Definately a dangerous thing."

That should give you a warm feeling if you are arriving in Qualicum Beach with KD Air, with the weather on limits , via the GPS approach they are approved for.

[inchman]

According to the article on spoofing:

>>>A GPS spoofing attack begins by broadcasting a slightly more powerful signal that initially agrees with the correct position of the GPS receiver, and then slowly alters the apparent position of the vehicle. The spoofer's adjustments must be sufficiently slow that the receiver does not lose signal lock – it must lock onto the spoofing signal without noticing the signal is different.

<<<

It doesn't say how long it would take, but there is a certain time period necessary to adjust the GPS calculated position. So, a perpetrator on the ground would have to know the exact (and changing) position of the aircraft (or more exactly, the GPS antenna), and which satellites it was decoding, then broadcast those satellites' specific signals, and slowly increase power to override them, then gradually change the calculated position.

How would the GPS receiver deal with an anomaly between positions if it was decoding some satellites that the perp was not spoofing? GPS's don't only use the 4 best signals; they can use more than that (and keep track of even more than those). It would also have to take into account the ever-changing relative position between the perp and the aircraft and the minor, but important, lag therein, as well. This would all have to take place within line-of-sight of the aircraft at very tight tolerances of power to ensure that the false signal did not overpower the satellite signal at first.

So, although it was I who brought forward the spoofing scenario, I think it would be almost impossible to do it without being on the actual platform (in the aircraft, where it is almost impossible to get a GPS signal in the passenger compartment from more than a couple satellites and from which the GPS antenna is probably shielded), and even then it wouldn't know what satellites the aircraft was using. We don't autoland off GPS approaches and we do have to have visual contact to descend below fairly high minimums, and most large commercial aircraft have IRS positioning that would complain if it varied from the GPS position too quickly.

I'm not going to lose too much sleep over this one, at least for now.

[J.O.]

Fair point. However, while a spoofing scenario may be difficult to achieve, a significant disruption to operations is still a very real possibility, especially given that more and more of our nav providers are being privatized. They continue to look for ways to replace expensive ground-based facilities with GPS-based ones. I believe that work is still progressing on differential GPS which would permit low visibility ops and even autoland. Imagine the mess if an airport such as LHR relied 100% on GPS some day and someone decided to throw up a nice powerful jammer on one of those misty London mornings. The disruption to the system would be significant, and potentially dangerous. I just hope that those in charge will keep a good eye on this particular ball and take great care when considering putting all of our navigation eggs in one easily-disrupted basket.

[boestar]

I think you can add in the Augmentation system and ground based GPS signals used to increase accuracy. These would be easier to spoof due to being stationary themselves. I don't think it would be an easy thing to do but I do think it is possible. I think the ground based stations would be more dangerous due to their purpose of increasing accuracy during approach and landing. A spoof in this instance could wll put a plane into a building.

I wont lose any sleep either.

Most GPS will track 10 - 12 stations (Satelittes or ground stations) and require a minimum of 4 to get a location and altitude with accuracy increasing with the more signals used. Heck my phone is currently tracking 10.

[Don Hudson]

August 12, 2013

Feds levy first big fines for GPS jamming that pose risks to air safety

by GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News Aviation Specialist

SEATTLE - The Federal Communications Commission says it's trying to stop the jamming of Global Positioning System and cell phone signals in the U.S.

Last week, the agency took its first enforcement action against an individual by fining a New Jersey man almost $32,000 in penalties for using a GPS jammer in his company-issued pickup truck, as a way to prevent his boss from tracking his movements through a GPS antenna attached to the truck.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Feds-levy-first-big--fines-for-GPS-jamming-what-are-risks-to-air-safety-219338931.html

[Mitch Cronin]

Fines or not, I hope to hell all relevant noodles and boffins are well aware how easily the entire satellite system for GPS could be zapped by solar interference from material spit from the sun in the wrong direction at the wrong time... It's not an unknown phenomenon, so surely there'd never be a situation where that becomes the solitary nav-aid?

[Don Hudson]

". . . how easily the entire satellite system for GPS could be zapped by solar interference"

Computers and the internet have rendered the usual weapons of mass destruction and any version of the Cold War obselete; just neutralize the power grid and just in the eastern U.S. Civilization is a house of cards without electricity.

The notions of "the next catastrophe" aren't the stuff of futurists and other such hucksters. Single-point failures which have catastrophic outcomes like Fukushima abound. The populated area along the central flood plains has already provided that lesson as have the levies of New Orleans.

Power failures can't be all bad though...it does enhance the population...

[J.O.]

So true, Don. Ten years ago today was the big blackout in this part of the world. If something like that were sustained for a couple of weeks it would be chaos.