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GPS Jamming for $50
Anonymous writes "One of the newest hacker tools out there is a homemade GPS jammer. According to this article in Computerworld, such jammers can be built with $50 worth of electrical parts. Phrack has published a how-to aimed at inexpensive GPS-based navigation and "hidden tracking devices.""
How about a cell phone jammer?
It is explicitely illegal for pilots to rely on GPS for navigation. Of the several types of navigation you learn when you earn your pilots license, GPS is not one of them. Even if a (assumed general aviation) pilot was breaking the rules and relying solely on GPS for navigation, its not like the GPS begin jammed would suddenly screw him. He can always go back to the more reliable methods, including the tried and true "looking out the window".
:P
To be effective, GPS jamming would have to have a range of at least 20 miles, which would be a signal that would be quite easy to track down and stop.
Who else uses jamming? The military can use it, but again, its not like jamming is going to do much because missles can be targeted at the jammers.
Hikers could be screwed I suppose, but few hikers rely on GPS for their lives.
GPS Lo-Jacks could be disabled, but activating a GPS jammer would be like turning on a huge beacon pointing straight to the thief anyway.
Street-map GPSs could be disabled, but given their accuracy, most people wouldnt even notice
Since, according to the GAO, in the last Gulf War, 80% of our "smart" bombs missed their targets, I don't think we'll notice if Saddam jams their guidance systems...
Military ordnance is not intended to WORK - it is intended to make profits for defense industry corporations who bribe Congress and the DOD for contracts...
After all, did we ever NEED 10,000 nuclear weapons? Of course not - we needed the MONEY we spent on them to insure our re-election...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
.. looking at the stars and the sun to figure out where you are? I think we are getting too dependant on electronics telling us everything. *cough* slashdot *cough* =)
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
I was in a theater with a friend who's wife was due to have a baby very soon - we left my cell phone on but I had it on vibrate, and we sat at the edge. No-one would have been bothered but it would have been annoying to have that jammed if she did call.
However - wouldn't it be nice to be able to have a jammer built into your car to jam people within a few hundred feet of you? Then the person traveling exactly the same speed as the person in the lane next to them might notice what was going on when the talking came to an end.
Jamming people in cars around you seems like a good idea to me (though it probably presents an extra distraction to make them even more dangerous for a few seconds...).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"A real problem causer would then put it on schoolbusses filled with children. Or maybe in hospitals"
Under the LOAC, those civilian deaths are on the head of the military that planted the devices. The laws of armed combat prohibit the usage of humanitarian/hospital resources for any combat purpose... doing so makes those assets legitimate military targets. For instance, US combat troops are often made to check their rifles when they enter a hospital facility (even if it's a tent in the middle of the desert), to prevent a LOAC violation, and subsequent classification of the hospital/clinic as a military target.
When the israelis were taken to task recently for blowing up some terrorist leader in the west bank (which also killed the civilians he was hiding with), you had a perfect example of this. Those civilian deaths were the responsibility of the TERRORIST, since he chose to hide his legitimate-military-target self amongst innocents... the TERRORIST bears the responsibility for those lost lives. You will note, however, that you didn't hear the mainstream press blaming the palestinians.
If Iraq uses these jammers, there will certainly be civilian deaths. The world press, being totally ignorant of the realities and legalities of combat, will undoubtedly have a fit (in fact, Saddam is probably counting on it).
Of course, you can leave the jammer in place, and let an entire longstick of bombs fall aimlessly all over the city, killing thousands... or you can fire a single missile and take care of the problem. How many people do you think will magically "forget" to plug in their Saddam-issued jammers once this starts to happen?
If this turns your stomach, welcome to the club; I don't like the thought of innocents dying any more than anybody else. Hence, I think it's best to minimize that kind of thing by being as smart about it as possible. War is an ugly business... best to end it quickly.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.