ISRAEL - Fake GPS Locations Deter Attacks

The U.S.-operated Global Positioning System has been listing planes, people and even ships hundreds of miles from Lebanon in a surprising place—Beirut’s international airport.

It’s the result of a practice called GPS “spoofing”—which sends false location signals to satellites that overwhelm the real signals. The operations, which researchers have traced to Israel, are intended to deter rockets and missiles but are at the same time increasing risks for airline passengers while forcing pilots and ship captains to abandon automated safety systems developed over decades.

“I like to say that spoofing is the new jamming,” says Todd Humphreys, a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Austin who is an expert on GPS spoofing. 

“Instead of just jamming the signals and breaking the links with GPS satellites, they’re spoon-feeding them false signals.”

Spoofing has been conducted for the last several years by countries that include Russia, China and Iran. But this is an even higher level of interference and widespread effects on aviation, navigation and anything that uses GPS, according to researchers.

Although the risks of false GPS locations are much higher in the air, they are also affecting shipping—where navigation is normally controlled by the satellite-based Automatic Identification System (AIS).

“We are seeing a spike in vessels having their AIS essentially manipulated by third party operations, seeing a massive uptick in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea as well as the Black Sea,” says Bridget Diakun, a data analyst with the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.

The false signals are affecting ride share apps, delivery drivers and dating app users—matching them with potential partners hundreds of miles away, including in countries at war.

-www.npr.org, 22 April 2024