Every day, for nearly 10 minutes near the London Stock Exchange, someone blocks signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. Navigation systems in cars stop working, and timestamps of transactions in financial institutions may be affected. However, these incidents are not cyber attacks by foreign powers. The most likely culprit, according to Chronos Technology’s company, secretly monitors such incidents, is a delivery man who is avoiding attempts by the boss to find him.
Weak signal. Mr. Curry compared them to 20-watt bulbs seen at 19,300 kilometers. Jammers are cheap: Drivers can buy dashboard models for £ 50 (about $ 78). They are becoming an increasing threat. The electromagnetic noise bubbles they generate can interfere with legitimate GPS users. They disrupt civil aviation and disrupt cell phone signals. In the United States, their sale and use are prohibited. In the UK, civilians are banned from buying intentionally, but purchases are currently not banned: Ofcom, the regulator, is considering a ban. In recent years, Australian authorities have destroyed hundreds of GPS jammers.
The latest investigation report by the Russian independent media group “Project” on luxury villas belonging to senior government officials shows that most of them include GNSS jammers. Reporters attempted to use drones to photograph villas from the air, but often failed.
Most military and security services in the country have equipment capable of blocking GPS and other satellite navigation signals in areas of all sizes. However, Russia has developed it into regular art.
The Russian army has always been proud of its capabilities in electronic warfare. They see them as an important means of countering the effectiveness of Western high-tech weapons. The media “Sputnik” reported in 2015 that the Russian army claimed that its capabilities in electronic warfare “made aircraft carriers useless.
GPS is the underlying technology for many Western weapons and many important network infrastructures in the West. As a result, interference and deception by GPS and other GNSS systems has long been a priority for the Russian military.
In 1997, a Russian company proposed a four-watt GPS and GLONASS gps jammer that can be used at intervals of 150 to 200 kilometers. They also reported the development of a directional antenna for this jammer in cooperation with the Russian military. These antennas focus the interference on a specific target without harming most other users. The U.S. military was interested enough to purchase jammers for testing and evaluation in 2002 for nearly $ 200,000.
In 2016, Russia announced a plan to add GPS jammers to more than 250,000 cellular towers to partially defend against US cruise missile attacks.
In the same year, an article in the Moscow Times declared: “The Kremlin eats GPS at breakfast!”. GPS users near the Kremlin regularly find their phones, which indicates that they are 20 kilometers from the international airport. This has caused serious damage to Uber and Lyft drivers and delivery services that rely on satellite navigation. This identity theft or sending false information to recipients was intended to protect the Kremlin and its leaders from drone attacks and surveillance. Most drones are programmed in the factory based on the airport and its takeoff location.
Independent technologists in Moscow also reported that the deception used a classic electronic warfare technique called “gathering.” Russia ’s GPS L2 and L5 signals and GLONASS satellite navigation signals were interfered. This forces the receiver to rely on the spoofed L1 signal.
In the same year, the same type of activity was found in the Black Sea. The RNT Foundation reports that more than 600 ships have been “transported” to land airports. A subsequent report released by the non-profit organization C4ADS in 2019 shows that between 2016 and 2018, the number of cases of forged ships near the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and Vladivostok in western Russia was close to 10,000 boxes. There is also a strong correlation between the actions of the Russian president. Vladimir Putin and deception.
The C4ADS report documents a huge Russian “intelligent jammer” that operates almost continuously in Syria, with effects far beyond the country’s borders. According to its definition, the message transmitted by the smart jammer appears to be a valid GPS signal, but its content does not allow the receiver to calculate the location. The Syrian action prompted the US Maritime Administration to repeatedly warn of GPS interference in nearby international waters, and the European Air Traffic Management Agency warned the country of international airspace. Eastern Mediterranean.
In recent years, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries have also witnessed Russian GPS interference. In 2017, the NATO secretary general complained about the obstruction of the Russian Navy, which also reduced the quality of mobile phone services in Latvia, Norway and Sweden.
Earlier this year, Norway protested Russian interference in its far north, some of which were planned for NATO exercises. In the past 17 months, five major interference incidents have occurred, affecting aviation, construction and other users.
Russia often proves that jamming and deceiving GNSS can be a useful tool for homeland security and an effective method of power projection. Its actions, as well as the portability and proliferation of interference and identity theft devices, are no doubt reminding the West that Russia can cancel important GNSS services at any time.