March 2024: Since August of 2023, “pilots operating in the Middle East began to report instances of their onboard navigation systems being overtaken by fake GPS signals. The first reported incidents took place in a strip of Iraqi airspace close to the country’s border with Iran that is commonly used by flights traveling between Europe and the Gulf states.” The RNL’s Dr. Humphreys along with Zach Clements have been using data from low-earth-orbit satellites to geolocate the spoofing sources. Their efforts located a spoofer close to a location in the Iranian capital, Tehran. “On Oct. 15, the IDF acknowledged that GPS signals along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based, would be restricted but made no reference to spoofing.” Dr. Humphreys says, “you know it’s gone mainstream not when the Russians are practicing it, or the Iranians, or the Chinese, but when allies of the United States are practicing it.” For more, read the article here.
