GPS underpins many modern systems, from time stamping financial transactions to map creation and navigation, but the system is vulnerable. In Summer 2017, dozens of ships in the Black Sea suddenly reported that their GPS units were malfunctioning and displaying the ships as inland. Experts indicate that this was a GPS spoofing attack performed by Russia. “Do I think this is a sign that the spoofing is government backed or state sponsored?” said Todd Humphreys, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “I would have to say the evidence points to ‘yes.’ “
Until recently, GPS spoofing hasn’t been considered a threat. Recent events however, are changing minds. “We are dangerously vulnerable to spoofing,” Humphreys says. In 2012, Humphreys successfully spoofed a GPS unit on a yacht, taking over the navigation system and misguiding it. “We found that we didn’t raise any alarms on the bridge,” he said of the experiment. “The spoofing was clandestine.”
Read the full article featuring Dr. Humphreys.
