Context: Indian Air Force’s transport aircraft carrying relief materials to earthquake-hit Myanmar faced “GPS spoofing”. India sent relief materials to Myanmar in a C-130J aircraft and its pilots reported that the plane's GPS signal was tampered with, when it was in Myanmar’s airspace.
Relevance of the Topic: Prelims: Key facts related to GPS Spoofing.
GPS Spoofing
- GPS (global positioning system) spoofing is a form of cyberattack that includes generating false GPS signals to mislead an aircraft, ships and vehicles. The false signals result in misleading the navigation equipment, posing a significant risk to the aircraft, ships etc.
How does GPS Spoofing work?
- GPS spoofing exploits the inherent vulnerabilities in the GPS infrastructure – the weak signal strength of GPS satellites. GPS systems function by sending signals from satellites to GPS receivers on Earth. These receivers then calculate their position based on the time it takes for these signals to arrive.
- However, due to the weak signal strength of the GPS satellites, these signals can be easily overwhelmed by fake signals, resulting in inaccurate location data on the receiving device.
- The act of GPS spoofing typically involves using a signal generator or other sophisticated equipment to transmit counterfeit GPS signals that are stronger than the genuine satellite signals. These false signals, when picked up by a GPS receiver, can cause it to calculate an incorrect position or time.
Some entities that may carry out GPS spoofing :
- Governments/military: defence, sensitive facility protection, tactical warfare, espionage etc.
- Criminals/hackers: illegal activities, transportation or communication systems disruption, cargo theft, victim tracking, stalking.
- Private organisations: location manipulation, competitive advantage, fraud etc.
Measures to prevent GPS Spoofing:
- As a response to the increasing prevalence of GPS spoofing, various countermeasures are being developed to secure GPS-based systems, including signal strength monitoring, time-of-arrival analysis, and cryptographic authentication.
- Furthermore, experts suggest the use of multiple satellite navigation systems to cross-verify and validate positioning data, thus minimising the risk of spoofing attacks.
Also Read: How Global Positioning System (GPS) work?