Scary stuff…
A radio navigation research team from The University of Texas at Austin set out this summer to subtly coerce a 213-foot yacht off its course using a custom-made GPS device.
Led by assistant professor Todd Humphreys of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the Cockrell School of Engineering, the team was able to successfully spoof an $80 million private yacht using the world’s first openly acknowledged GPS spoofing device.
Spoofing is a technique that creates false civil GPS signals to gain control of a vessel’s GPS receivers. Unlike GPS signal blocking or jamming, spoofing triggers no alarms on the ship’s navigation equipment and is essentially indistinguishable from authentic signals.
The purpose of the experiment was to measure the difficulty of carrying out a spoofing attack at sea and to determine how easily sensors in the ship’s command room could identify the threat.[FONT=luxi-sans-1]
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To me this seems like one of those things that are technically possible, but highly unlikely.
The biggest hurdle I can see for a potential spoofer is that they would need to know the intended track of the vessel. You can’t spoof the signal if you don’t know where the ship is going. And I don’t think it would be as difficult to detect as some are arguing. If nothing else, the first time you change course for traffic you’ll notice something’s up… 
Also, it isn’t quite clear in the video…but I think the counterfeit signal used in the spoofing must’ve originated on the vessel itself to be strong enough to overpower the actual GPS signals. I suppose you could do it from an aircraft or other nearby vessel, but I would think that would really open the attacker up to detection…
[QUOTE=“captobie;115980”]To me this seems like one of those things that are technically possible, but highly unlikely.
The biggest hurdle I can see for a potential spoofer is that they would need to know the intended track of the vessel. You can’t spoof the signal if you don’t know where the ship is going. And I don’t think it would be as difficult to detect as some are arguing. If nothing else, the first time you change course for traffic you’ll notice something’s up… :)[/QUOTE]
I don’t think its unlikely that yacht pirates would love this.
If it affects your AIS also then you should realize something is wrong on your chart plotter when passing buoys or ships. If you have one and if you are paying attention…
Don’t think it would really be that difficult. With most ships out there running on “red line fever”, you have the ships course. There are many easy ways to get a ships destination. As to proximity to the target to take over their GPS, ships often times run in tandem with other vessels. Same track, same speed. Obviously easier with slow movers. Unless you are near land and have a very attentive watch, this would be pretty easy. To think of it though, ships collide into each other and run aground all by themselves. A little assist could be catastrophic.
This story reminds me of the one about taking control of an airliner with a cell phone from a few weeks ago. Makes for a sensational headline.
[QUOTE=captobie;115987]This story reminds me of the one about taking control of an airliner with a cell phone from a few weeks ago. Makes for a sensational headline.[/QUOTE]
I’m no electronics genius but doesn’t it take at least 3 GPS satellites to provide the most minimal 2D fix and 4 to provide a 3D fix? It seems to me that unless you spoof at least 3 sats you are just introducing an error so large the receiver would throw it out.
In addition, since the sats talk to each other and use their own positions as part of the process, it sure looks like it would take a tremendously powerful spoofing transmitter to overcome the genuine signals long enough and well enough to do anything useful for a bad guy. In the meantime there might still be someone on the bridge who is capable of reading a compass or does the Spoof-O-Matic machine include a really strong magnet as well?
Methinks there is a research grant application at stake here somewhere, or an amendment to the Patriot Act that will make the use of a sextant a terrorist act.
[QUOTE=Steamer;115990] In the meantime there might still be someone on the bridge who is capable of reading a compass or does the Spoof-O-Matic machine include a really strong magnet as well?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=“Steamer;115990”]
In addition, since the sats talk to each other and use their own positions as part of the process, it sure looks like it would take a tremendously powerful spoofing transmitter to overcome the genuine signals long enough and well enough to do anything useful for a bad guy. In the meantime there might still be someone on the bridge who is capable of reading a compass or does the Spoof-O-Matic machine include a really strong magnet as well?[/QUOTE]
Why would it need to affect the compass? The OICNW would just assume he has a 3° set. They aren’t talking about massive course deviations, just enough to get the boat where the pirates want without anyone onboard knowing. Did you even watch the video?
[QUOTE=Mikey;115984]
//youtu.be/YbWpFMXADAY
PS - Thanks Jamie for the tip.[/QUOTE]
You are quite welcome.
Well this is just great. Now our DP repair techs have another excuse that leaves no evidence to explain away why they can’t find or don’t know what the problem is.
“It was sunspots”
“It was thruster wash”
“It was rig shadowing”
“It sounds like a mechanical issue, you need to call the mechanic”
“We’ll add another ground wire”
“You had too many reference systems enabled”
“You didn’t have enough reference systems enabled”
“You should reboot when it does that”
“It must of been spoofing going on around you”
“It’s on the list for the next shipyard period”
I don’t think this is anything ‘new’. If I recall it’s how the Iranians claimed to have captured one of the US’s spy drones about a year ago.
Its easy to do and you would never know ( assuming you didnt look out of the window.)
The gps signal is very week
So its easy to knock out the gps and a bit more work and you can send a false signal.
It was demonstrated to the UK navy several years ago when the UK government wanted to know what was possible and a guy fooled a navy ship and he did it from the land. ( google it and its on the web somewhere as they issued a NTM to warn vessel not to use GPS in that sea area at the time)
The US Gov knew this from the start when they built Navstar and they take measures to know they are receiving the correct signal on Navy ships etc.
The test in the UK scared the European governments hence they upgraded their Loran chains, just when the US gov removed theirs…DOH!
Loran is a powerful signal so hard to play with.
I keep hearing more and more stories of a vessel with no Navstar sats in view but Glonass ok, just look out the window, if you see a grey ship you know why.
It happened to me once offshore in Libya, went on internet to check the space weather and there was no activity so wasn’t a sun spot or bad scintillation.
[QUOTE=powerabout;116041]Its easy to do and you would never know ( assuming you didnt look out of the window.)
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, a signal strong enough to do anything from too far to be seen would certainly be noticed by a lot of other GPS users whose systems would be disabled but not spoofed. And what is the point of redirecting a ship so far at sea that a signal strong enough to spoof the GPS would not be noticed by others. There aren’t enough places on the earth anymore that the military or other users would not instantly be aware of a spoofing attack.
Looking out the window will help a lot, if there is a strange ship with a bunch of antennae nearby all the time, get suspicious.
[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;116005]Why would it need to affect the compass? The OICNW would just assume he has a 3° set. They aren’t talking about massive course deviations, just enough to get the boat where the pirates want without anyone onboard knowing. Did you even watch the video?[/QUOTE]
I watched it, it was a nice cartoon of a ship shifting its course a few degrees. Where on the planet would what you consider an insignificant course change help a pirate yet not be recognized by the greenest mate? Where could a signal strong enough to spoof the GPS be transmitted from a station far enough away to not be seen by the victim or be noticed by other users?
Why would anyone want to induce a 3° error so far at sea that it can’t be noticed?
[QUOTE=Steamer;116052]
Why would anyone want to induce a 3° error so far at sea that it can’t be noticed?
[/QUOTE]
I would think someone that wanted to cause mischief rather then pirates wanting to hijack the vessel.
Having control of a vessel’s GPS signal would be very similar situation as having inaccurate charts as was the case with the USS Guardian striking Tubbataha Reef.
In principle ships are using terrestrial navigation methods when available but my experience is that many ships rely upon GPS very heavily if not exclusively to navigate both at sea and in restricted waters like Singapore Straits. Mates like to steer for that waypoint come hell or high (low) water.
[QUOTE=Kennebec Captain;116064]my experience is that many ships rely upon GPS very heavily if not exclusively to navigate both at sea and in restricted waters like Singapore Straits.[/QUOTE]
Precisely … the only place it could make any difference would be in a location where there are multiple cues that the GPS is wrong … if the bridge monkeys care to observe those clues. Not only that but using the Straits as an example, just watching the ships in front of you run aground enmasse should also provide a clue. Not to mention the traffic separation guys might think something is amiss when all the ships slowly veer toward the beach. Plus the fact that someone somewhere on the fringe of the spoofed signal will report loss of signal or crazy wrong positions.
The chances of a geek with a spoof transmitter sitting on the aft deck is pretty slim I would think. It’s far easier and cheaper to buy a mate to do the dirty work than buy the kind of technology required to do more than demonstrate a what amounts to an interesting stunt or a means to assure more research funding.
One final note … or question: So why did the boffins feel it necessary to spend the research budget to charter a megayacht in the Med to conduct an experiment they could have done on a rowboat or even just walking around within shouting distance of the school?