September 2024: “Since the start of the Gaza war, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been deploying a tactic known as GPS “spoofing”, designed to fool enemy missiles and rockets that rely on the global positioning system technology to aim at their target” reports the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Their GPS spoofing has also affected civilians through disrupting “civil infrastructure, commercial aircraft and even dating and food delivery apps.”
Their GPS spoofing causes devices in the area to resolve as being located “[o]n the tarmac of Beirut’s international airport” or an industrial estate in Cairo, Egypt. The RNL’s Dr. Humphreys says these locations are “fairly arbitrary.” Research at the RNL has determined the location of at least one of the spoofing transmitters to be in the Ein Shemer Airfield in northern Israel.
One major disruption is for aviation. Dr. Humphreys “says because of the frequency, pilots have become accustomed to this and sometimes shut off the alarms or the GPS system, which is dangerous, despite there being no accidents so far” according to the ABC. “In July, Lebanon filed a complaint to the United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) over the GPS spoofing, which also affects aircraft transiting the Mediterranean.”
The ABC reports that “it’s not clear if this practice is considered legal or not as the International Telecommunications Union ‘has spoken out both sides of its mouth'”, according too Dr. Humphreys. He says “[o]n the one hand, [the ITU] says, ‘Thou shalt not transmit any signals in the GNSS bands. These are sacred bands, bands reserved for aviation, for safety of life.’ But in a different portion of the … constitution, they basically give carte blanche to countries over security threats.” This would allow any country to disrupt GPS, even beyond its borders and for civilians, if they claim it is for security reasons.
