GPS jammer that could paralyze U.S. cities


Recommended Posts

Our society relies on the "invisible utility" known as GPS, says David Hambling at the New Scientist. Cell phones, ATMs, in-car navigation systems ? they all rely on satellite signals. If they were suddenly jammed, chaos could ensue. But what would it take to jam GPS signals? Roughly $30. Here, an instant guide:

How exactly does GPS work?

A global positioning system (GPS) receiver gets signals from at least four orbiting satellites, allowing it to calculate its exact location. The dominant provider of satellite signals is the U.S. military, whose NavStar network has at least 24 satellites operating at any given time.

How easy is it to disrupt a GPS signal?

Very easy. GPS signals are extremely weak ? after all, they're coming from around 12,000 miles away ? so it doesn't take a lot of energy to disrupt them. David Last, a navigation consultant, managed to jam the network of a 500-ton ship using a homemade device. When he switched it on, the ship went "haywire," reports The New Scientist. Its navigation, radar, and communications systems all went down in a matter of minutes.

But that is just a ship. How could it disrupt a U.S. city?

A powerful enough jammer ? or a number of strategically-placed smaller jammers ? could disrupt GPS signals across an entire city. The threat is serious enough to have provoked a warning from NASA. A "multiple agency approach must be urgently developed and executed" to counteract the "alarming" rise in availability of GPS jammers, it warned in a paper last year. The threat to our national security could be "devastating."

How do these jammers work?

They broadcast a strong signal on the same frequency as the satellites, effectively drowning out the GPS signal. The simplest models plug into a cigarette lighter, and can prevent all GPS reception within a 10-mile radius. And some cost as little as $30 online.

So my Garmin would not work. Is that really a big deal?

Actually, your in-car navigation system is one of the least critical networks that would be disrupted by a GPS jammer. Cell phone towers, power grids, and aircraft landing and traffic control systems could all be rendered useless by GPS jammers, as could bank machines and stock exchanges.

Has that kind of disruption happened yet?

Yes. A truck driver who used a small GPS jammer to avoid paying the New Jersey Turnpike toll inadvertently brought down Newark International Liberty Airport's GPS-based landing system once or twice a day for several months, simply by driving past it on his way to and from work. If it's that easy, says Emily Esfahani Smith at The Blaze, just "imagine a terrorist getting his hands on one of these."

Could a terrorist really use GPS jammers to disrupt a city?

Yes, says David Derbyshire at Britain's Daily Mail. A "single terrorist" armed with equipment costing less than $1,000 could "block the GPS signal over London and leave banks, emergency services, power plants and airports in chaos." Uh, hang on a second, says British cybersecurity expert Peter Sommer, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal. It would actually take unprecedented mastery of GPS technology to bring such "apocalyptic visions of a cyber-hell" to life. The idea that it would be easy for terrorists to cause "long-term, large scale disruption" is "entirely fanciful."

What do the experts want to do about it?

NASA wants the government to declare GPS "critical infrastructure," which would expand and strengthen defense of the satellite networks. It also advises building a back-up satellite system. Experts in Britain have advised banning the import and possession of GPS jamming devices, and using alternative technology, such as a low-frequency radio system, as a back-up to GPS.

source

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uhh, wait.

Could a terrorist really use GPS jammers to disrupt a city?

Yes, says David Derbyshire at Britain's Daily Mail. A "single terrorist" armed with equipment costing less than $1,000 could "block the GPS signal over London and leave banks, emergency services, power plants and airports in chaos."

Uh, hang on a second, says British cybersecurity expert Peter Sommer, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal. It would actually take unprecedented mastery of GPS technology to bring such "apocalyptic visions of a cyber-hell" to life. The idea that it would be easy for terrorists to cause "long-term, large scale disruption" is "entirely fanciful."
Link to comment
Share on other sites

i'm lost as to how banks, the power grid, and some of those examples rely on GPS?

well the power grid uses GPS to track every single electon so they can bill you for each of them! yeah seriously wtf is up with the GPS usage on staionary things, sure they MIGHT get time codes off them to sync clocks, but there is other ways to do that also... lack of GPS signals wouldn't shut them down, they have backup systems to get the current time

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i'm lost as to how banks, the power grid, and some of those examples rely on GPS?

I have no idea why banks and the power grid would need it but airports / airplanes do.

GPS navigation is pretty common in aviation and it is a non precision approach (or precision if the receiver is WAAS enabled). Now that said planes don't need GPS to fly or land, there are other methods that can be used.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have no idea why banks and the power grid would need it but airports / airplanes do.

GPS navigation is pretty common in aviation and it is a non precision approach (or precision if the receiver is WAAS enabled). Now that said planes don't need GPS to fly or land, there are other methods that can be used.

a lot of stuff users GPS to pull timecodes for time syncronization, but almost all that stuff uses time servers as a backup also..... so to say take out GPS take out the power grid is sensationalistic BS... almost as bad as the news stories saying hackers will take down the power grid through the internet... yet almost the entire power grid in the USA is connected via a private network and all through fiber connections and powerline communication.... no internet connection to the control systems

Link to comment
Share on other sites

a lot of stuff users GPS to pull timecodes for time syncronization, but almost all that stuff uses time servers as a backup also..... so to say take out GPS take out the power grid is sensationalistic BS... almost as bad as the news stories saying hackers will take down the power grid through the internet... yet almost the entire power grid in the USA is connected via a private network and all through fiber connections and powerline communication.... no internet connection to the control systems

Hackers will turn your computer into a BOMB!!!!!!!1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i'm lost as to how banks, the power grid, and some of those examples rely on GPS?

I was thinking the banks may include a GPS signal for security.

A tranfer request must come from a certain location, for example.

Or tracking the armored money trucks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hackers will turn your computer into a BOMB!!!!!!!1

gawd, I still to this day hear people saying someone whill hack your system and make it into a bomb... I just want to rip my hair out when I hear that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was thinking the banks may include a GPS signal for security.

A tranfer request must come from a certain location, for example.

Or tracking the armored money trucks.

Banks in California have GPS just in case an earthquake makes them slide off into the ocean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is why you should always have a paper map!

My wife thinks I am crazy but to this day I still print out directions if I do not know where I am going.

The first 2 "real" jobs I held, I was a delivery boy for a pharmacy, then a few years later I delivered paintings for an art gallery. Way before the existence of GPS.

Not only that, but my father was a truck driver his entire life. When I was young some days I would go on runs with him. At first, he used to let me read the maps to make me think I was actually reading them and getting us to where he was going. After awhile, I was actually reading them no issues at all.

Another example is where I work, we have 2 other offices. One is here in NJ and the other is in PA. I only had to drive to each office once and I remembered how to get to them without the help of GPS or printer directions. I have coworkers who have worked with the company way longer than I have, that to this day still cannot get to the offices without their GPS.

Because of reading maps in the past, and still insisting on doing so, I have a much better sense of direction than the average person.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Its navigation, radar, and communications systems all went down in a matter of minutes.

I understand navigation, although most GPS units can provide basic N, S, W, E directions without a GPS signal. Radar uses GPS but the radar itself would still function and be able to locate other boats and such. Communications should be unaffected by a GPS jammer. Maritime frequencies range from about 156Mhz to 162Mhz. Some communications device have built-in GPS units in them but the communications should work fine.

Does this article bring up a real threat? Yes. Would it be as bad as the article makes it sound? No. That being said, if anything major uses GPS to function, it better have a non-GPS backup ready. It shouldn't be that hard since GPS has really only become common place in the last 10-15 years.

Imagine if they jammed a city. Suddenly tons of women drivers would be lost and driving in circles!

So it would be slightly worse than it is now? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.