Slashdot Mirror
Russians Seek Answers To Central Moscow GPS Anomaly (yahoo.com)
stevegee58 writes: Russians have been noticing that their GPS doesn't work in Moscow near the Kremlin. Everyone from taxi drivers to Pokemon Go players suddenly notice that they're transported 18 miles away at the airport when they near the Kremlin. While this may be an annoyance to the public it seems like a reasonable countermeasure to potential terrorist threats. Is it only a matter of time before other vulnerable sites such as the White House or the Capitol in Washington start doing the same? "A programmer for Russian internet firm Yandex, Grigory Bakunov, said Thursday his research showed a system for blocking GPS was located inside the Kremlin, the heavily guarded official residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin," reports Yahoo. "The first anomaly was recorded in June, according to Russian media reports, which have also suggested that the GPS interference comes and goes in a pattern. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday he did not know why the malfunction was occurring and admitted experiencing the problem himself when driving recently. Peskov redirected questions to Russia's Federal Guards Service, which is responsible for protecting the Kremlin and senior Russian officials."
In conjunction with the fact that it isn't marked on any paper maps and is completely invisible, you mean?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Now that it's know that there is an error then any attacker would plan for alternatives.
The only way it really can be effective is when it's not active until really needed.
And there are still maps, alternative beacons, compasses (magnetic and gyro) and dead reckoning that can be used to find such targets for anyone out to perform an attack.
People were able to navigate even before GPS existed.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
In Putin Russia, GPS relocate you!
Assuming the story to be true, the answer to the anomaly is pretty obvious. The USA is sending a message - fuck around with us and we can fuck around with you. Of course Russia has GLONASS but I bet a lot of devices don't use it or prefer GPs.
A better answer might be that the best reasonable directional antennas are not directional enough to reject a strong local jamming signal.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Me too. It could tell my ankle bracelet that I am at home when I am at the air port.
Most recent phones support GLONASS. Even an older device like the Nexus 5 does so. You can use an app like GPS Test (by Chartcross, for Android) to see them. They're the higher numbered satellite (60s, 70s). The support is built into the GPS integrated receiver, from Qualcomm and others.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled"
It's because Putin's animal magnetism has a 18m radius.
Not only that but just like how the CCTV:s in the UK in the end helped the criminals to optimize their business this will in the end help the terrorists to optimize their business. Now they can build drones that fly around looking for these anomalies in order to map out all potential targets, many of which one would probably never be able to find otherwise.
In an instance of war or a strategic hit precision guided bombing sequence requires gps. If there is no gps they will have to use laser guidance or some other less 'fire and forget' tracking method. Bomb makers knew this day was coming Guided-Bomb Makers Anticipate GPS Jammers http://www.defensenews.com/sto...
It is strange to see many posters think that GPS is an american something. GPS is a shorthand for the generic term "Global Positioning System".
The american implementation is called NAVSTAR,
The soviet (later russian) implementation is called Glonass,
The European Union has Galileo and
The chinese system is called COMPASS
(but most call it Bei-dou, lit. art of wayfinding, in order not to confuse it with "Compass Call" which is an american military satellite jamming aircraft).
All of these are Global Positioning Systems, although there were a few years after the fall of USSR, when only the american system had truly global reach, due to russians' lack of funds to replace ailing satellites.
Some weapons are GPS-guided, such as JDAM-assisted bombs.
The world is gearing up for a heated conflict. Wether it occurs or not is a different story. But last month's US chief of armies gave a chilling speech where they expect mass casualties within 10 years, to the likes of WWII.
The nations are placing their pieces on the map and gearing up for defence. GPS denial devices is an obvious counter-measure, assuming it actually deter military -grade GPS systems (which are far more precise than civilian ones).
Future headline:
Russian leader Vladimir Putin was killed in a freak accident today while crossing the street next to the Kremlin. A fully autonomous prototype Tesla sedan had veered out of control and was speeding through central Moscow side streets at freeway speeds, and it tragically ran over Putin and several of his bodyguards. A defiant Elon Musk issued the following statement: "Our vehicle had nothing to do with this incident. We've analyzed the black box data, and this car was miles away at the airport at the time of the accident."