The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking to use cell phones and commercial wireless networks as a way to alert pilots of GPS spoofing attacks, according to IEEE Spectrum.
A test developed by the Mitre Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation Systems Development uses the network’s timing device to gauge the location of the phone and then compares it with the GPS location. If the two are not in concert, a warning is given.
“Such a warning would be useful because GPS is far from perfect,” IEEE Spectrum wrote. “The unencrypted signals from orbiting navigation satellites are extremely weak, and relatively easy to overpower or even fake (called “spoofing”).” Earlier this year, the publication reported that GPS interference events are far more prevalent than had previously been thought.
The Defense Innovation Unit, a Department of Defense organization that contracts with commercial companies to solve national security problems, is also looking into searching for commercial tech to defend against GPS disruptions using spoofing. The FedScoop account discusses those that impact the military location system.
“The entire world is dependent on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or GNSS-based systems, yet the GPS architecture and its users are vulnerable to denial and manipulation by adversarial actors,” DIU wrote.
NexNav, a geolocation company, defines a GPS spoofing attack as when a terrestrial radio transmitter “mimics GPS signals at a greater signal strength than the actual system, effectively replacing real GPS signals with a fake signal.”
Electronic jamming of GPS signals is a threat that is “real today and concerning,” the chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force Gen. John Raymond told a congressional hearing in May, SpaceNews reported.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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