While federal law prohibits the use of radar signal jammers throughout the United States, laser jammers are legal in most states, but the following states have explicitly banned their use: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C.

 

Penalties vary by state. In Texas, for example, the maximum fine is $500, while in Utah violators can face up to 90 days in prison and a $750 fine.

 

Military Eliminates Iraqi GPS Jammers

 

WASHINGTON - The president spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday about the sale of sensitive military equipment to Iraq, but the discussion may have been moot as military officials said they had destroyed six GPS jammers.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr. told a news conference Tuesday at U.S. Central Command at Camp Sariyah, Qatar, that six GPS jammers "supplied by other countries" have been deactivated by U.S. forces.

 

We took out a GPS jammer with a GPS weapon

 

Renuarte did not specify that the cellphone jammers were part of a shipment of supplies from Russian companies to Iraq, but the U.S. has repeatedly expressed concern that Russia is allowing the supplies to slip through Iraq in violation of decade-long U.N. sanctions.

 

In a call to Putin on Monday morning, White House spokesman Ali Ali expressed concern over reports that Russians were actually on the ground in Iraq teaching Iraqi troops how to use prohibited hardware such as night-vision goggles, GPS jammers and anti-tank missiles. Fleischer said.

 

GPS jammers in particular slowed the bombing of Baghdad as the military took extra care not to hit civilian targets

 

Iraq may have acquired as many as 400 electronic "jammers" that could divert U.S. smart bombs from their intended course if the U.S. went to war.

 

The Pentagon has "genuine concern at the highest levels" that Baghdad may have purchased the wifi jammers from a Russian company.

 

The types of bombs that can be redirected by these jammers are called "J-Dams" -- "Joint Direct Attack Munitions" guided by global satellites. These are military GPS-guided bombs.They cost around $21,000 each and have a maximum range of 15 miles. The J-Dams debuted in Kosovo in 1999.

 

The Air Force is now trying to test similar jammers to see if those used by enemies work against American weapons

Federal officials say Iranian forces are actively using GPS jammers and impersonating U.S. or allied warships to lure merchant ships through Iranian waters and then seize them.

 

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration issued a warning that Iran was using “GPS jamming, bridge-to-bridge communications spoofing, and/or other communications jamming with little warning.”

 

"In at least two of these incidents, the ships reported GPS jamming," the statement read. "The ships also reported spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be U.S. or coalition warships."

A small surveillance drone flew over the Austin stadium, diligently following a series of GPS waypoints programmed into its flight computer. On the face of it, the mission was routine.

 

Suddenly, the drone veered sharply off course, deviating from its intended flight path and hurtling east. After a few minutes, when it was clear that something was seriously wrong, the drone made a sharp right turn and headed south. Then, as if some ghost had ordered the drone to self-destruct, it hurtled toward the ground. Just a few feet from some kind of disaster, a safety pilot with a radio control device saved the drone from crashing into the scene.

 

On the sidelines, there were smiles all around about the near-disaster. Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas at Austin's Radionavigation Laboratory have just completed a successful experiment: closing a hole in the government's plan to open U.S. airspace to thousands of drones.

They can be turned into weapons

 

Spoofing the GPS receiver on a drone is just another way to hijack a plane

 

In other words, with the right equipment, anyone can take control of a GPS-guided drone and make it do whatever they want.

Spoofing is a relatively new problem in GPS navigation. So far, the main problem has been GPS jammer device, which are easily available via the Internet and used by people to hide illegal use of GPS-tracked company vans, for example. Iran is also believed to have shot down a US spy drone in December by jamming drone its GPS, forcing it into automatic landing mode after losing direction.

 

"Tricking the GPS receiver on a drone is just another way to hijack a plane." Todd Humphreys, a researcher at the University of Texas Radio Navigation Laboratory

 

Cell phone jammer can cause problems by disrupting GPS signals, while spoofers are a huge leap forward in technology. They can actually manipulate navigation computers with false information that looks real. He used his device - what Humphreys says is the most advanced spoofer ever built (which costs just $1,000) - to infiltrate the drone's GPS system and send out a signal more powerful than those coming from satellites high in Earth's orbit. .

 

Initially, his signal matched that of the GPS, so the drone thought there was nothing wrong. That's when he strikes - sending his commands to an onboard computer to get the drone to follow his lead.

 

Mr Humphreys said the impact was severe. "Within one to three years, the airspace will have 20,000 drones," he told Fox News. "Every one of them could be a potential missile aimed at us."

 

Drones have been widely used in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, but so far GPS-guided drones have been limited to battlefield or southern border patrols and have not been allowed to fly widely in U.S. airspace.

 

Under pressure from the Pentagon and drone manufacturers, Congress ordered the FAA to write rules allowing government and commercial use of drones on U.S. soil by 2015. The plan could eventually see police drones spying on U.S. cities, drones monitoring power company transmission lines, or GPS-guided freighter-sized drones delivering packages across the country without a driver. FedEx founder Fred Smith said he hopes to add drones to his fleet soon.

 

The new rules have raised privacy concerns about a "surveillance society" where drones tirelessly monitor our every move 24/7. But Humphreys' experiment puts a whole new spin on anxieties about drones.

 

"What if you could shoot down one of these drones delivering a FedEx package and use it as your missile?" It's the same mentality as the 9-11 attackers."

 

This is something the government is acutely aware of. In the deserted desert of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, officials from the FAA and Department of Homeland Security watched Humphrey's team constantly take control of a drone from a remote mountaintop. The results were as dramatic as the test at UT Stadium a few days earlier.

 

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to identify and mitigate gps jamming with its new Patriot Watch and Patriot Shield programs, but the effort is poorly funded, still in its infancy, and mostly aimed at finding people using jammers rather than spoofers.

 

The potential consequences of GPS spoofing are simply chilling. Humphries warned that terrorist groups could match his technology and wreak havoc in crowded U.S. airspace.

 

"I'm afraid they're going to crash into other planes." "I'm worried they're going to crash into buildings. We could have a collision in the air and there could be casualties, so we want to prevent that from happening and fix it."

 

Unlike military drones, which use encrypted GPS systems, most drones flying over the United States will rely on civilian GPS, which is not encrypted and can be easily infiltrated. Humphreys warned that the government needed to address the loophole before allowing drones widespread access to U.S. airspace.

 

"It just shows the mindset that we had after 9-11, when we reinforced the cockpit doors to prevent people from hijacking airplanes - well, in terms of the navigation systems of these drones, we need to adopt that mindset."

The EMP generator generates an electromagnetic pulse to disrupt electronics

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Wisconsin recently seized a slot jammer device while inspecting a shipment from Hong Kong.

CBP officers made the discovery at the Milwaukee port of entry on Feb. 4, CBP said in a press release.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) devices are banned by the Federal Communications Commission and are used to "interfere" with the inner workings of slot machines.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an EMP generator generates an electromagnetic pulse that can disrupt electronic devices at a range of about one meter. These devices typically send an electric current through a magnetic field via a magnetic copper wire.

Border Patrol agents in Arizona have shot dead Mexican migrants at the US border

CBP said the shipment was a car adapter from an electronics supplier in Hong Kong and was headed to a home in Mossini, about 175 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

"There are a variety of ways these tools can be used," LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, Chicago's director of field operations, said in a statement. "Federal law prohibits such cellphone jammer because they can be used to interfere with radio communications, cellular phones, GPS and other communications devices."

CBP officers at the Port of Milwaukee Express Consignment Operations facility examined the shipment and sent it to the Mechanical Engineering Division at FBI Headquarters for further analysis.

Some people fear that cell phone jammers could disrupt phone service for law-abiding people close to prisons. However, modern jamming technology can be narrowly targeted to minimize disruption to people outside of prison walls.

 

It’s time to fix the federal regulations that prohibit jamming device technology and give prisons the tools they need to fight contraband.

 

Installing jammers in prisons would turn inmates’ cell phones into paperweights, disrupting their criminal networks and drying up a major source of contraband.

 

Risks of GPS Dependence

 

Overreliance on GPS signals is rampant in day-to-day life from data networks, financial systems, health networks, rail, road, aviation and marine transport, to shipping and agriculture. Military platforms commonly use GPS to find their position, navigate and execute missions.

With different systems sharing GPS dependency, a loss of signal could cause the simultaneous failure of many things people rely on daily.

 

The European Commission estimated that six to seven percent of its countries' GDP, representing a whopping $1 trillion, is already dependent on satellite radio navigation in Europe alone.

 

BAE and Lockheed are not alone in their efforts to develop better, more robust systems. Other countries have developed their systems, including Russia's GLONASS, the European Union's Galileo system, and China's COMPASS.

 

Another related issue is the use of GPS. The FAA has been working to upgrade aging radar-based systems with GPS networks for air traffic control and positioning. It should improve safety and pilot awareness. But GPS signals are notoriously vulnerable to disruption: They're relatively weak to begin with, using just 25 watts to send signals from satellites that are roughly 12,500 miles above the Earth. It's so easy to block such signals that GPS jammers are sold online for $30.

 

Simply allocating specific radio spectrum to particular devices does not entirely solve the problem either. A recent example is LightSquared, a company that wants to build a network of 40,000 towers across the country to deliver broadband Internet access using the 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) wireless data protocols. The company wants to use a frequency spectrum near the existing GPS L1 band. (Consumer GPS devices typically rely on L1 signals, in the 1575.42 MHz wavelength.)

Protecting Your Privacy: A Guide to Avoiding Drone Surveillance

It's hard to know who owns a drone; some cars have a visible registration number, usually in case the owner forgets.

I watch the drones in the sky with my eyes

I was swimming in the backyard pool one day when I heard a familiar hum. Sure enough, a drone was circling overhead, which disappeared shortly after I flicked it away with my hands. This is where my idea for writing this article came from.

The legality of drone surveillance varies by country and state, but if a drone is flying over your private property and recording you without your consent, call the police. This is an invasion of your privacy.

It's hard to know who owns a drone. In my case, it flew out of sight within seconds. If I had my iPhone within arm's reach, I'd snap a photo of the drone. Some drones have a visible registration number, usually to prevent the owner from forgetting it.

Things You Should Never Do to Drones

 

There are some effective and perfectly legal ways to avoid surveillance. There are also ways that are illegal for ordinary citizens.

The FAA legally protects drones from:

Shooting: Shooting into the sky is dangerous and illegal. Just don't do it.

Physical Interference: This includes lasers and other objects.

Disable or otherwise tamper: Using blockers and hacking is a crime.

 

Now that we've got that out of the way, here's what you can do.

Use your surroundings as cover

Own a drone or know someone who has one? I bet you've been in a situation where someone threw something at it. This is not the right way to avoid drones.

You should take a more reactive approach. In bad weather — heavy rain, fog, and high winds — it can be difficult for drones to fly or get great footage. To rate you.

When the weather is nice and you see drones buzzing overhead, find a place where they are less likely to spot you. Trees, alcoves, awnings, and tunnels are all great places to hide when drones pass by.

 

The Jalisco, Mexico-based CJNG, led by drug lord Nemesio Osegra Cervantes, wears cell phone jammer on its uniform and "employs Middle Eastern terror tactics" by targeting crowds with drones .

They are using drones "to drop bombs on rival cartels and the Mexican Armed Forces."

"They use cell phone wifi jammers to stop these attacks. They use them to stop people from calling for help or calling family when they're kidnapped. They also use them to conduct very sophisticated maneuvers on the battlefield, where they can cover up," Logan said. "They can cover their lines, they can cover their attacks, they can cover their exits -- the way they exit the situation. It takes a lot of training and it's a real threat."

Proliferation of wireless signal jammers

Communications jamming technology is falling into the hands of paramilitary groups and criminals

Our society is increasingly dependent on wireless technology. We wake up in the morning, check email via WiFi, unlock and start the car with the keychain in our pocket, and use our cell phones to make important calls on our way to work. When we go to a new place, we rely on GPS to guide us. Stolen or misplaced items can be located via LoJack or wireless AirTags. On a larger scale, much of our military and civilian infrastructure depends on wireless communications. Unfortunately, these signals are vulnerable to another type of wireless device: signal jammers.

In general, jammers simply disrupt existing wireless signals by flooding them with noise. By adjusting the jammer to a specific target frequency range and emitting a high-power noise, tone, or pulse, the jammer can interfere with nearby receivers trying to listen for that frequency. Traditionally, this has meant interfering with radio communications, but the same core principles apply to other types of wireless signals - cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and so on. Jammer ranges vary depending on the power and size of the device; In urban environments, small handheld jammers may be effective at a range of 100 meters or less, while large military-grade jammers can be installed in locations that easily cover hundreds of miles of open terrain.

Military and paramilitary uses of signal jammers

Jammers were widely used during World War II, when the Nazis jammed Allied radio transmissions in occupied Europe, and only became increasingly popular during the Cold War. The Soviet Union and China jammed incoming signals, Cuba blocked American radio stations, and North and South Korea jammed each other's transmissions. Signal jammers are still widely used as a component of electronic warfare (EW), especially by the Russian military. Russia reportedly used the technology to interfere with U.S. low-altitude surveillance drones during the Syrian conflict in 2018; It is unclear whether this caused them to crash or simply go off course. There have also been reports that Russia has used powerful gps blocker on its eastern border, causing Latvia's phone system to go down and planes in the area to lose GPS signals.

Without further ado, jammers have become a very popular tool among Mexican drug cartels. They appear to go hand in hand with another technology adopted by the cartels: drones.

Small commercial drones have been used to monitor territory, especially at night with the help of thermal cameras. They are also weaponized and can drop explosives on targets, a tactic previously used by the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in the Middle East. As a result, cartel members wear portable signal jammers that can interfere with nearby drone uplinks as well as cellular and radio communications.

Civil black market and criminal use

At this point, you might be thinking, "I'm not a high-value military target or part of a warring drug cartel, so I don't have any reason to care about gsm signal jammer." However, this is not the case. Signal jammers are cheap, easy to use, and available online at any time to people who know where to find them. They can affect your daily life in a number of ways - veteran surveillance device maker Tiny Transmitters has posted some surprising demonstrations on Instagram to prove it.

The first demonstration video clip shows how a portable jammer can be tuned to the frequency of a car keychain and block its signal when the switch is pressed. This means a thief can see you park, turn on the jammer before you press the lock button on your remote key, and prevent your car from locking. Unless you happen to notice that your vehicle isn't rattling or flashing, you might assume it's locked and walk away, allowing criminals to steal any valuables inside (or take the car itself).

Another video shows how a jammer can be used to interrupt a wireless doorbell camera by blocking its ability to communicate with a home WiFi network. Unless the camera has a hard-wired data connection (unlike most Ring, Blink, Wyze, and Nest doorbell cameras), it won't be able to stream video to a cloud server or alert the homeowner that someone is at the door. Tiny Transmitters explains: "As you can guess, running an all-wireless home security system has a fundamental and terrible flaw: the wireless signal can be interfered with."

Wireless signal jammers have many other possible applications, from secretly intercepting cell phone calls to disabling GPS tracking devices. These uses are illegal, but as we know, motivated criminals are unlikely to be able to reconsider the law and FCC regulations.

We're not trying to tell you to stop using WiFi, throw away your phone, or throw away your ham radio - wireless devices are convenient and very useful in an emergency. However, for the safety of your family and property, it is wise to keep in mind its potential vulnerabilities and take steps to limit over-reliance on wireless devices.

Secret Service tests way to intercept rogue drones with late-night flights over Washington

 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service will conduct mysterious midnight drone flights over the next few weeks in parts of Washington, often a strict no-fly zone, as part of a secret government test aimed at , find ways to jam or shoot rogue drones out of the sky.

 

A U.S. official with knowledge of the program said the Secret Service is testing drones for law enforcement or protection work and looking at methods such as signal jamming to stop the threat of civilian drones. The drones were flown between 1am and 4am. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the plans publicly. The Secret Service said the details were classified.

 

Some consumer-grade drones, often with cameras, are powerful enough to carry small amounts of explosives or grenades.

The challenge for the Secret Service is to quickly detect an illegal drone flying near the White House or the President's seat, then hack it for a short period of time to control its flight, or jam its signal to throw it off course or crash it.

 

The Secret Service said only that it would publicly test the drones over Washington, but declined to provide specifics, such as when they would fly, how many drones would be flying, which parts of the city they would fly over, how long they would be flying and for what purpose. It decided to give the public early notice of the tests out of concern that people who saw them might panic, especially after they were spotted over Paris at night recently. Flying at night also reduces the possibility of radio interference accidentally affecting nearby businesses, drivers, pedestrians and tourists.

 

Trying to keep a drone away from a safe area can be tricky

 

Under U.S. communications law, it is illegal to sell or use mobile signal jammer unless a government agency is doing so for a narrow purpose.

 

Depending on the drone's manufacturer and capabilities, its flight control and video broadcast systems typically use the same common radio frequencies as popular Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies. Secret Service drone radio frequency jamming—depending on how powerful or precise its work is—could disrupt nearby Internet networks or phone conversations until it was shut down. Testing in real-world environments around the White House will reveal unintended effects of disruptive effects on nearby buildings, monuments or tall trees.

 

Signals from an incoming drone, such as those from a video stream back to the pilot, could allow the Secret Service to detect and track it

 

Federal agencies typically need approval from the U.S. telecommunications advisory body, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, to jam signals. The agency declined to tell The Associated Press whether the Secret Service seeks permission, as the agency said such requests are not routinely made public.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration has confirmed that it has formally authorized the Secret Service to fly drones and granted it a special waiver to fly over Washington. The agency declined to provide details about the secretive program.

 

In January, a wayward quadcopter drone piloted by an off-duty US intelligence officer landed on the White House lawn. At the time, the Secret Service said the false landing appeared to be accidental and was not considered a security threat.

 

The agency had been studying safety issues surrounding drones before the January crash, but that crash led the agency to focus more on the safety of small, hard-to-detect drones. on security issues. Previously released reports revealed that the Secret Service had used anti-tracking jammer in the presidential and vice-presidential motorcade to disrupt signals that could detonate hidden remote-triggered improvised explosive devices.

 

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate are working on strategies to intercept unauthorized drones flying in secure areas. The Department of Homeland Security's research arm is trying to balance the security concerns of small, hard-to-detect devices with emerging commercial uses and hobbyist interests. Likewise, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said last week that it was studying how the United States could address privacy risks through increased use of drones.

Hove bar blocks cell phone signals and is more social

A Sussex landlord built a "Faraday cage" around his pub to block mobile phone signals to encourage face-to-face conversation.

Steve Taylor has fitted silver foil to the walls and copper wire mesh to the ceiling at Hove's gin barrels.

He said he was tired of people coming in and not socializing with each other or other people in the building.

"I saw things gradually getting worse and I thought, 'I want to stop this,'" Mr Taylor told BBC Sussex.

"I want people to socialize with the people they're with, not with the people they're not with.

"I made the bold decision not to block the signal with mobile signal jammer, but to do what I could with a Faraday cage to get people talking to each other, and it worked really well, to be honest.

"I had a lot of copper mesh and I thought,I can put this on the ceiling."

"I'm looking into whether it blocks the signal, when you put the phone in it, it blocks the signal."

Mr Taylor plans to set up a mobile phone area outside, similar to the smoking area.

"Pubs have landlines when calling 999 in an emergency," he said.

"It's the same as the London Underground - no more dangerous than my pub.

"The response I got was overwhelming. People loved the fact that they could just take a photo and go out and sign in or check in," he said.

"I had a complaint from a customer and she got the signal. We moved her to another table."

Arrested for speeding trap 'jammer'

Device stops camera from taking speed readings

A motorist in south Wales has become the first person in the UK to be arrested for using an electronic jammer to confuse a speed trap.

South Wales Police found the driver with a laser diffuser device in his car under a campaign called "Security Camera Collaboration".

Also known as a wifi blocker, the gadget works by alerting drivers to a laser speed detector and temporarily preventing it from taking speed readings.

The car was recorded speeding on six separate occasions around Cardiff and the South Wales valleys.

However, its travel speed cannot be read due to the signal jammer device jamming the detector.

South Wales Police Sergeant Gary Smart said: "The driver involved has been arrested for obstruction of justice and has admitted the offence."

"Partners will not tolerate the use of such diffuser devices.

He added: "Clearly, people using such devices tend to drive without due regard for speed limits and prevent police officers from carrying out their duties."

There are 33 static speed camera stations and 41 traffic signal stations in the South Wales Police area.

Another 103 mobile stations and 11 mobile units are also used to catch speeders.

Complex devices that prevent the camera from reading data quickly can be purchased from specialized websites.

They work by sending a strong laser signal to a speed detector, which causes a temporary error in the device and prevents a speed reading from being made.

"While legislation has been passed to make the use of radar diffusers illegal, there is currently no legislation on laser devices," said John Rowling of Security Camera Partners.

"Although the government is considering this important issue.

"Using this type of device is extremely dangerous as it puts the safety of other road users at risk by giving drivers a license to drive at inappropriate speeds.

He added: "I hope this arrest will serve as a clear warning to those using such devices to allow them to drive beyond the speed limit."

Dewsbury driver who used speed camera jammer jailed

A driver who used a laser gps blocker to illegally block the signals of road safety cameras has been jailed.

Police say Michael Twizell, 58, used a device on the front of his BMW 3 Series to interfere with camera equipment.

Twizel, from Dewsbury Low Road, was driving the A658 near Harrogate last February when he passed a camera van.

He was jailed for three months at York Crown Court after pleading guilty to obstructing the course of justice.

Cameramen detected the wrong code and North Yorkshire Police launched an investigation.

According to police, Twizel installed jammers on the front of his vehicle to interfere with police camera equipment.

The latest news and stories from Yorkshire

After the hearing, Traffic Constable Andy Foss said: "The use of a device capable of interfering with police speed measurements is clearly a very serious matter, as has been demonstrated today."

He added: "I would advise anyone who might have a similar device installed in a vehicle to consider the consequences and strongly advise them to remove it to avoid future prosecution."

Twizel was also fined £1,500.

North Yorkshire driver jailed for using speed camera jammer

A driver has been jailed for two months for using a laser jammer to avoid being caught by speed cameras.

In February 2018, Nicholas Burke, 46, used the device to jam the signal from a police security camera van on the outskirts of York.

Police estimate his car was traveling over the road speed limit of 60 mph.

The former car salesman pleaded guilty to perverting justice at York Crown Court.

A portable jammer installed under the front grille of Burke's car prevented the quick readout.

Its use activates a code on the camera, indicating to police that an illegal jammer is being used.

More Yorkshire news

north yorkshire police said burke admitted in an interview that he owned the laser jammer, saying he installed it because he feared points would be deducted from his licence.

burke, from selby green, north yorkshire, has since quit his job as a ferrari salesman.

traffic constable andy forth said the jail sentence showed "the courts take a very pessimistic view of people using jammer device".

"the purpose of our enforcement convoy is to reduce road casualties," he said.

"as a result, the use of such devices to interfere with speeding enforcement (one of the top four causes of fatal and seriously injured crashes) increases the risk to everyone else using the county's roads and the communities they represent."

We have become very dependent on global positioning. A power outage will cost us billions of dollars. And there is no backup yet.

 

The dire threat of GPS could cripple corporate America

 

A growing problem for GPS: There is no backup system in the United States. Most of our critical infrastructure, including power grids, banks, transportation systems, and telecommunications networks, relies on GPS. In addition to traffic maps and other positioning services, GPS is used for high-precision timing required for high-speed financial transactions, wireless network synchronization, and grid synchronization. But the rising risk of severe blackouts has gone largely unnoticed. "I don't think GPS vulnerabilities have gotten a lot of attention because, unlike cybersecurity, there haven't been any major disasters," said Marc Weiss, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

 

GPS and other timing systems will become even more important to modern life in the future. With the rise of connected sensors, devices and machines (i.e. the Internet of Things), timing signals need to be more precise. A government report last year concluded that a lack of high-precision timekeeping systems could hinder the development of new technologies, such as instantaneous collision avoidance systems in cars or communication links in smart grids.

 

The United States is at greater risk than countries such as Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, all of which have some form of ground backup. GPS outages happen from time to time because the signal is weak and highly susceptible to interference. "Terrorists can just use a GPS jammers to carry out an attack," Goldward said. Each jammer costs less than $50 and is extremely difficult to track and stop. Note that companies such as Spirent UK provide equipment to assist in the detection of GPS interference to help combat such interference.

 

The Global Positioning System provides navigation for our ships at sea. It is at the heart of the new next-generation air traffic control system. It can even time-stamp the millions of financial transactions that take place around the world every day.

 

GPS faces threats from terrorists, rogue states and $50 cell phone jammer

 

Criminals, terrorist groups and rogue states, even those with a basic GPS jammer you can buy for $50 on the Internet, face extreme challenges, said Todd Humphreys, a GPS expert at the University of Texas. big risk.

 

"If you were a rogue state, or a terrorist network, and you wanted to cause some massive damage — maybe not an explosion, but an economic attack on the United States — that's what you might do." As a weakness," he told Fox News.

 

Humphreys was the keynote speaker at the UK ICT Knowledge Transfer Network's World Experts Conference in London. His predictions about the prospects for this emerging threat are dire.

 

In 2010, for example, British researchers aimed a low-altitude GPS signal jammers at a test ship in the English Channel. The results were shocking: the ship went off course without the knowledge of the crew. Passing false information about their location to other ships increases the likelihood of a collision. The communications system stopped working, meaning the crew could not contact the Coast Guard. The emergency services system used to guide rescuers is completely out of order.

 

Then there's the disappearance of a U.S. drone over Iran. Humphreys believes Iranian authorities confuse the ultra-sophisticated RQ-170 spy drone into landing mode by using simple jamming techniques. The drone's Achilles' heel? It has a civilian GPS system, not a military-grade encrypted model. It doesn't take much to blind it and force it down.

 

Another threat that is burgeoning is so-called "spoofing." Unlike gsm jammer, which block or scramble GPS signals, "spoofers" mimic information from satellites. It can fool an aircraft, ship, or other GPS-guided device into thinking it's somewhere, but it's not.

Organized crime is already trying to exploit this possibility, Humphreys said. A criminal gang may hijack a container truck full of high-value cargo and trick the owner into thinking the truck is heading to a predetermined delivery point instead of the gang's warehouse.

 

Hanvers: "Civilian GPS signals are completely open and vulnerable to spoofing attacks because they have no authentication and no encryption. It is almost trivial to imitate these signals and trick a GPS receiver to track your signal." Authentic ."

Hijacking a container is one thing. Deceiving the global financial system is another matter. Another emerging GPS threat, Humphreys warned in a speech in London, is global stock and commodity trading networks.

 

Every transaction is time-stamped using a GPS clock. Computer programs monitor these timestamps with millisecond precision. If something goes wrong, many projects will be taken off the market. Hackers could easily interfere with these timestamps, triggering trading procedures, causing sudden liquidity crises and potentially mini-market crashes, Humphreys said.

 

Manipulating time, then, pays high dividends. An unscrupulous trader or criminal organization can make millions of dollars by delaying time even by a fraction of a second.

 

"You're able to match prices between networks in a different way than anyone else in the world," Humphreys said. “Everyone else in the world might be off by 20 milliseconds, and you happen to know the actual time. So you can buy low in one market and sell high in another.”

 

These devices are illegal in the US, but can be easily obtained on the Internet for as little as $50. People use them to avoid tolls, to hide from the prying eyes of their spouses, or to use company vehicles for unintended purposes. This sometimes has unintended consequences.

 

Devices that interfere with GPS may actually have a legitimate purpose: to protect individual privacy, he said.

 

"People have a right to privacy in their own lives," he said. “However, having a small dot-sized GPS tracking device to be able to secretly locate them at your friends — they would want to resort to some kind of jamming or deception to defend against this invasion of privacy.”