July 2026: In June 2017, Russian civilians and military personnel alike became casualties of a mysterious, meandering cloud of GPS spoofing. It was later revealed that this spoofing came from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s security detail for protection from drone strikes.
The RNL’s Dr. Todd Humphreys, who built the first civilian-operated GPS spoofer, had predicted such GPS incursions could occur. Speaking about his spoofer in a 2012 TED Talk, Dr. Humphreys saw “airplanes and ships veering off course, with the captain learning only too late that something was wrong. I saw the GPS-derived timing of the New York Stock Exchange being manipulated by hackers. You can scarcely imagine the kind of havoc you could cause if you knew what you were doing with a GPS spoofer.”
On Slate’s Decoder Ring podcast, Dr. Humphreys remarked, “Thousands and thousands of papers have been written since, and I think it was all to the good, because when spoofing arrived in the wild… we were much better prepared than if we had just sat around saying, ‘I’ll keep my head in the sand.'” GPS spoofing has grown increasingly prevalent in the wartime theater, its effects spilling into civilian life in Europe and the Middle East.
Listen in with Slate’s Willa Paskin on her episode of Decoder Ring for a history of GPS, its evolving role on the global stage, and an interview with Dr. Todd Humphreys (beginning at 27:22). A transcript is also viewable here.
