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Ships fooled in GPS spoofing attack suggest Russian cyberweapon
New Scientist ^ | 08/10/2017 | By David Hambling

Posted on 08/21/2017 4:50:22 PM PDT by oxcart

Reports of satellite navigation problems in the Black Sea suggest that Russia may be testing a new system for spoofing GPS .

On 22 June, the US Maritime Administration filed a seemingly bland incident report. The master of a ship off the Russian port of Novorossiysk had discovered his GPS put him in the wrong spot – more than 32 kilometres inland, at Gelendzhik Airport.

After checking the navigation equipment was working properly, the captain contacted other nearby ships. Their AIS traces – signals from the automatic identification system used to track vessels – placed them all at the same airport. At least 20 ships were affected.

While the incident is not yet confirmed, experts think this is the first documented use of GPS misdirection – a spoofing attack that has long been warned of but never been seen in the wild.

Until now, the biggest worry for GPS has been it can be jammed by masking the GPS satellite signal with noise. While this can cause chaos, it is also easy to detect. GPS receivers sound an alarm when they lose the signal due to jamming. Spoofing is more insidious: a false signal from a ground station simply confuses a satellite receiver. “Jamming just causes the receiver to die, spoofing causes the receiver to lie,” says consultant David Last, former president of the UK’s Royal Institute of Navigation.

Todd Humphreys, of the University of Texas at Austin, has been warning of the coming danger of GPS spoofing for many years. In 2013, he showed how a superyacht with state-of-the-art navigation could be lured off-course by GPS spoofing. “The receiver’s behaviour in the Black Sea incident was much like during the controlled attacks my team conducted,” says Humphreys.

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Russia; Technical
KEYWORDS: cyberwar; cyberweapon; drone; gps; radar; russia; spoofing
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To: dila813

Was it “Darkened Ship” by chance?


41 posted on 08/21/2017 6:50:01 PM PDT by 2CAVTrooper (Democrats... BETRAYING America since 1828.)
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To: raiderboy

In a one-off situation, I would agree with you. The fact that it’s happened twice in a short time...I have to admit my spidey sense is tingling.

If it happens again, I think we will all need to reevaluate.


42 posted on 08/21/2017 6:56:42 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: oxcart

Oh for heavenns sake, someone could just look out the window and say “ Hey, look, there’s a ship!


43 posted on 08/21/2017 7:10:25 PM PDT by TalBlack (It's hard to shoot people when they are shooting back at you...)
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To: oxcart

Ships should immediately return to navigation methods we used 50 years ago. If a ship can’t navigate by the stars and with charts, a compass and clock, then it has no business being out of port.


44 posted on 08/21/2017 7:25:18 PM PDT by BuffaloJack
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To: oxcart

It’s called “meaconing,” not spoofing.


45 posted on 08/21/2017 7:33:36 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: LouAvul

Troll.


46 posted on 08/21/2017 7:44:30 PM PDT by lavaroise
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To: yldstrk

Gps spoofing might put ships on a reef or on the rocks. It won’t cause 2 ships to ram each other


47 posted on 08/21/2017 7:47:03 PM PDT by sharkhawk (Chelsea Dagger)
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To: Sirius Lee
The diversity crew might be better off with one of these:

But can they handle the requisite trigonometry?

48 posted on 08/21/2017 7:52:12 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: oxcart

We just assuming everything bad is Russian now?

The Chinese would be way more plausible.


49 posted on 08/21/2017 8:12:15 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: TalBlack

“someone could just look out the window “

There were 300 sailors on that ship. Apparently no one was looking out the window. THAT is the problem. Why not?


50 posted on 08/21/2017 8:41:36 PM PDT by Rennes Templar (Morning in America Again, again.)
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To: dila813
To bad the Military uses encrypted GPS that can only be spoofed if you know the rotating key.

Your position is that in 8 years Obama and his band of hyenas were unable to give Russia everything they needed (including and via Snowden)?

51 posted on 08/21/2017 9:24:23 PM PDT by IncPen (Progressivism is in perpetual need of an enemy against which to refresh its outrage.)
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To: 2CAVTrooper

Tactical blackout drive, ‘cept on a big steel boat.


52 posted on 08/21/2017 9:35:56 PM PDT by Delta 21 (AntiFa and BLM should be on the United States list of Terrorist Organizations)
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To: Afterguard

They stopped teaching celestial navigation at the Academy, ROTC and OCS some years ago. It is my understanding that they will start teaching it again or may already have done so.


53 posted on 08/22/2017 3:01:30 AM PDT by Bull Snipe
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To: lavaroise

The way things are going in the US lately, I’d say the communist takeover has already occurred from within. Angry blogging has been the only response so far.


54 posted on 08/22/2017 4:26:05 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: yldstrk

I was thinking the same thing. I can’t believe it took 13 posts for someone to raise this point.


55 posted on 08/22/2017 4:39:36 AM PDT by generally ( Don't be stupid. We have politicians for that.)
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To: oxcart
My Northstar Loran C was just as accurate as my GPS and more accurate than my VOR. I used it on non-precision approaches and found it to be as accurate as the localizer, just no glide slope.

Everyone has become too complacent in navigation.

56 posted on 08/22/2017 5:16:44 AM PDT by blackdog
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To: GingisK

Everything is just fine. The trans gender bathrooms on the USS McCain remained undamaged in the collision.


57 posted on 08/22/2017 5:18:52 AM PDT by blackdog
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To: IncPen

it is a rotating key.

I am sure they gave it to them, but the key changed.


58 posted on 08/22/2017 6:03:16 AM PDT by dila813 (Voting for Trump to Punish Trumpets!)
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To: Sirius Lee

Math is Hard!


59 posted on 08/22/2017 6:03:39 AM PDT by ABN 505 (Right is right if nobody is right, and wrong is wrong if everybody is wrong. ~Archbishop Fulton John)
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To: 2CAVTrooper

No, the ship is always darkened at night. that is setting the light traps etc..


60 posted on 08/22/2017 6:04:19 AM PDT by dila813 (Voting for Trump to Punish Trumpets!)
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