'Vulnerable' GPS technology can be hacked to hijack ships and aircraft: Stu

[JohnyD]

The UT team was able to drive the ship far, take it into treacherous waters, and even put it on a collision course with another ship.




A new study has revealed that the Global Positing System (GPS) is vulnerable to hackers or terrorists who could use it to hijack ships and commercial airliners.

Fox News reports that the new study has exposed a huge potential hole in national security.

GPS expert Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas (UT) had taken over the sophisticated navigation system on a super-yacht in the Mediterranean Sea using a laptop, a small antenna and an electronic GPS spoofer, built for only 3,000 dollars.

The UT team was able to drive the ship far, take it into treacherous waters, and even put it on a collision course with another ship.

However, the ship's GPS system reported the vessel was calmly moving along its intended course.

'Vulnerable' GPS technology can be hacked to hijack ships and aircraft: Study - Sci/Tech - DNA

 

[gambit]

The article is long on the fear factor but awfully short on the technical details.

First...Guidance is not the same as Command. GPS or any other satellite assisted signals are only guidance signals. The American GPS, the Russian Glonass, or the Chinese Baidu, cannot take over any vessel.

If you tell me to turn the steering wheel 45 deg at a rate of 5 deg/sec, that is Guidance.

If my brain command my arms to turn the steering wheel so the car will change direction, that is Command.

The two signals are isolated from each other. It is me, the driver, who is the interface between the two signals. So let us take this a bit further.

Automatic guidance/navigation and command integration is supposed to make our lives easier. If I blindfold myself and relies solely on your guidance/navigation directions, that is such integration. It is trust that I will change the car's direction at your convenience and that you will give me safe directions. If you want to mislead me, there is nothing I can do because my own method of verification (eyes) are disabled (blindfolded). So if you tell me to turn the steering wheel 45 deg at a rate of 5 deg/sec to avoid an obstacle when the reality is that it should be 10 deg/sec to be safe, that is the essence of this GPS spoofing method. The attacker created a false GPS signal and relies on the ship's guidance/navigation/command integration to do what he want.

The solution? Take off the blindfold. Always have someone on the bridge with his own eyes and navigation method that is independent of GPS signals. A pair of binocs and compass will do just fine. Then get ready to disable auto-nav and take the wheel if the two methods do not correlate, meaning if auto-nav is saying stay on course but your own eyes is saying it is a collision course with another vessel, take over the wheel. GPS signals cannot spoof one's vision.

 

[SQ8]

The article is long on the fear factor but awfully short on the technical details.

First...Guidance is not the same as Command. GPS or any other satellite assisted signals are only guidance signals. The American GPS, the Russian Glonass, or the Chinese Baidu, cannot take over any vessel.

Anybody remember this?

The premise was that of a GPS "encoder" being stolen to send the ship off course even through it thought it was on the right track. Paranoia about GPS is much older than that.

 

[livingdead]

Did not iranians do something similar to an US drone....

 

[Black Eagle 90]

The UT team was able to drive the ship far, take it into treacherous waters, and even put it on a collision course with another ship.




A new study has revealed that the Global Positing System (GPS) is vulnerable to hackers or terrorists who could use it to hijack ships and commercial airliners.

Fox News reports that the new study has exposed a huge potential hole in national security.

GPS expert Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas (UT) had taken over the sophisticated navigation system on a super-yacht in the Mediterranean Sea using a laptop, a small antenna and an electronic GPS spoofer, built for only 3,000 dollars.

The UT team was able to drive the ship far, take it into treacherous waters, and even put it on a collision course with another ship.

However, the ship's GPS system reported the vessel was calmly moving along its intended course.

'Vulnerable' GPS technology can be hacked to hijack ships and aircraft: Study - Sci/Tech - DNA

Can India do that???

 

[BeyondHeretic]

lol , we discovered this much earlier on I-ran-*****.net forum , when iran hacked GPS to hijack American drone ; you publish it now?

 

[gambit]

lol , we discovered this much earlier on I-ran-*****.net forum , when iran hacked GPS to hijack American drone ; you publish it now?

Yeah...Suuuuure Iran did...