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Russia Suspected In GPS-Spoofing Attacks On Ships (wired.co.uk)

How did a 37-ton tanker suddenly vanish from GPS off the coast of Russia? AmiMoJo shares a report from Wired: The ship's systems located it 25 to 30 miles away -- at Gelendzhik airport... The Atria wasn't the only ship affected by the problem... At the time, Atria's AIS system showed around 20 to 25 large boats were also marooned at Gelendzhik airport. Worried about the situation, captain Le Meur radioed the ships. The responses all confirmed the same thing: something, or someone, was meddling with the their GPS...

After trawling through AIS data from recent years, evidence of spoofing becomes clear. GPS data has placed ships at three different airports and there have been other interesting anomalies. "We would find very large oil tankers who could travel at the maximum speed at 15 knots," said a former director for Marine Transportation Systems at the U.S. Coast Guard. "Their AIS, which is powered by GPS, would be saying they had sped up to 60 to 65 knots for an hour and then suddenly stopped. They had done that several times"...

"It looks like a sophisticated attack, by somebody who knew what they were doing and were just testing the system..." says Lukasz Bonenberg from the University of Nottingham's Geospatial Institute. "You basically need to have atomic level clocks."

The U.S. Maritime Administration confirms 20 ships have been affected -- all traveling in the Black Sea -- though a U.S. Coast Guard representative "refused to comment on the incident, saying any GPS disruption that warranted further investigation would be passed onto the Department of Defence." But the captain of the 37-ton tanker already has his own suspicions. "It looks like the Russians define an area where they don't want the GPS to apply."

6 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. GPS Spoofing by iggymanz · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's all fun and games until a ship runs aground or collides with something, and an eye gets poked out

    1. Re: GPS Spoofing by bestweasel · · Score: 4, Funny

      They thought they were in the Mediterranean but something was wrong with their GPS.

    2. Re:GPS Spoofing by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

      Given that the first thing the Russians would do in an actual war would be to take out the GPS satellites I suspect there's an inertial and possibly a visual b@7;'[[*&)>..
      no carrier

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re: GPS Spoofing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      what is more democratic than 99%.

      letting the other 80% vote too?

  2. Re:37-ton tanker ? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Funny

    TFA says "tonnes". Maybe we should just use gigagrammes for clarity.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  3. Re:sophistication by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wikipedia suggests that Russia spoofs GPS whenever Putin is in the area.

    No! No hack, no spoof. Putin Strong, like bull. Forceful personality warps space around him. West just jealous they not have such leader.

    --
    #DeleteChrome