We have become very dependent on global positioning. A power outage will cost us billions of dollars. And there is no backup yet.
A growing problem for GPS: There is no backup system in the United States. Most of our critical infrastructure, including power grids, banks, transportation systems, and telecommunications networks, relies on GPS. In addition to traffic maps and other positioning services, GPS is used for high-precision timing required for high-speed financial transactions, wireless network synchronization, and grid synchronization. But the rising risk of severe blackouts has gone largely unnoticed. "I don't think GPS vulnerabilities have gotten a lot of attention because, unlike cybersecurity, there haven't been any major disasters," said Marc Weiss, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
GPS and other timing systems will become even more important to modern life in the future. With the rise of connected sensors, devices and machines (i.e. the Internet of Things), timing signals need to be more precise. A government report last year concluded that a lack of high-precision timekeeping systems could hinder the development of new technologies, such as instantaneous collision avoidance systems in cars or communication links in smart grids.
The United States is at greater risk than countries such as Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, all of which have some form of ground backup. GPS outages happen from time to time because the signal is weak and highly susceptible to interference. "Terrorists can just use a GPS jammers to carry out an attack," Goldward said. Each jammer costs less than $50 and is extremely difficult to track and stop. Note that companies such as Spirent UK provide equipment to assist in the detection of GPS interference to help combat such interference.
The Global Positioning System provides navigation for our ships at sea. It is at the heart of the new next-generation air traffic control system. It can even time-stamp the millions of financial transactions that take place around the world every day.
In 2010, for example, British researchers aimed a low-altitude GPS signal jammers at a test ship in the English Channel. The results were shocking: the ship went off course without the knowledge of the crew. Passing false information about their location to other ships increases the likelihood of a collision. The communications system stopped working, meaning the crew could not contact the Coast Guard. The emergency services system used to guide rescuers is completely out of order.
Then there's the disappearance of a U.S. drone over Iran. Humphreys believes Iranian authorities confuse the ultra-sophisticated RQ-170 spy drone into landing mode by using simple jamming techniques. The drone's Achilles' heel? It has a civilian GPS system, not a military-grade encrypted model. It doesn't take much to blind it and force it down.
Another threat that is burgeoning is so-called "spoofing." Unlike gsm jammer, which block or scramble GPS signals, "spoofers" mimic information from satellites. It can fool an aircraft, ship, or other GPS-guided device into thinking it's somewhere, but it's not.
Organized crime is already trying to exploit this possibility, Humphreys said. A criminal gang may hijack a container truck full of high-value cargo and trick the owner into thinking the truck is heading to a predetermined delivery point instead of the gang's warehouse.
Hanvers: "Civilian GPS signals are completely open and vulnerable to spoofing attacks because they have no authentication and no encryption. It is almost trivial to imitate these signals and trick a GPS receiver to track your signal." Authentic ."
Every transaction is time-stamped using a GPS clock. Computer programs monitor these timestamps with millisecond precision. If something goes wrong, many projects will be taken off the market. Hackers could easily interfere with these timestamps, triggering trading procedures, causing sudden liquidity crises and potentially mini-market crashes, Humphreys said.
"You're able to match prices between networks in a different way than anyone else in the world," Humphreys said. “Everyone else in the world might be off by 20 milliseconds, and you happen to know the actual time. So you can buy low in one market and sell high in another.”
These devices are illegal in the US, but can be easily obtained on the Internet for as little as $50. People use them to avoid tolls, to hide from the prying eyes of their spouses, or to use company vehicles for unintended purposes. This sometimes has unintended consequences.
Devices that interfere with GPS may actually have a legitimate purpose: to protect individual privacy, he said.
"People have a right to privacy in their own lives," he said. “However, having a small dot-sized GPS tracking device to be able to secretly locate them at your friends — they would want to resort to some kind of jamming or deception to defend against this invasion of privacy.”
If you happen to notice a second-hand Toyota Highlander being offered for a quick sale in Seffner, Florida, you'll know exactly who it belongs to. A local man, Jason Humphreys, has been given 30 days to pay a $48,000 fine after being caught radio-handed with a high-powered phone jammer hidden under his SUV's front passenger seat. When he was pulled over by a squad of FCC agents and police officers, who had spent days tracking the source of the wideband interference emanating from his vehicle, he reportedly told them that he was "fed up with watching cell phone usage while people were driving." Unfortunately for Humphreys, the state of Florida deems it legal for motorists to engage in phone conversations while they're on the move, whereas it severely frowns on the use of unlicensed jamming equipment that can disrupt vital communications between emergency services. The only glimmer of hope for this grumpy vigilante is if he can write to the FCC and somehow stall the fine, but even then he'll likely still face a separate case raised by an even grumpier Sheriff's office.
There are plenty of efforts to make drone-destroying lasers. But what about protecting those drones? Adsys Controls thinks it can help. It's making Helios, a passive jammer that confuses laser weapons. If it detects an incoming laser beam, it detects the traits of that beam (such as its pulse and wavelength) and interferes with them to prevent the laser from locking on and toasting the drone. The company won't say exactly how this interference works, although it may be a counter laser. The one certainty is that it's reliable -- this is "permanent protection" against subsequent lock-on attempts, not just a momentary break.
You may have to wait a while to see Helios in action, since there's no mention of contracts at the moment. Also, it's not certain how well this works. Can a laser target a part of the drone without the jammer catching it? And is the system quick enough to stop higher-power lasers that can burn a drone within a few seconds at most? Still, drones don't really have anti-laser defenses right now. Any protection is bound to be helpful, and Adsys' solution could be highly effective if it lives up to the hype.
Break-in suspects using cell-jamming technology to avoid surveillance camerasCell-jamming uses devices to interfere with radio or wireless signals.According to CMPD, thefts have figured out how to evade surveillance cameras in some home break-ins, utilizing technology in the process.
It’s called cell-jamming, and happens when a person uses a device to interfere with radio or wireless signals.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, “the use of a phone-jammer, GPS blocker, or other signal jamming device designed to intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications is a violation of federal law. There are no exemptions for use within a business, classroom, residence, or vehicle.”
Cell-jamming could happen from a device roughly 30 feet from the intended target, or home cameras.
Rogue toy drones - a hot Christmas gift this season and last year - are beginning to disrupt military operations at multiple bases across the country. Sales of consumer drones are expected to approach 700,000 this year, and military officials say they are bracing for the problem to get worse and fear a possible aviation disaster.
In June 2015, an Air Force KC-10 aerial tanker flying at an altitude of 3,800 feet over suburban Philadelphia was forced to take evasive action and narrowly avoided hitting a football-sized drone that passed within 10 feet of its right wing.
According to reports filed with the Armed Forces or the Federal Aviation Administration, there were at least 35 cases of small drones interfering with military aircraft or operating too close to military airports in 2015.
Previously, close encounters with rogue drones were almost unheard of. But rapid advances in technology and falling prices have led to a boom in sales - and a corresponding surge in reports of air traffic chaos.
According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines, drone pilots flying for recreational purposes should keep their aircraft below 400 feet and at least five miles from airports. However, regulators have been largely unable to enforce these guidelines.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used for a wide range of applications, including reconnaissance, surveillance, mapping, space information acquisition, and geophysical exploration. Often, in these situations, GPS is the key to safely operating the drone.
Drones are commonly used for Earth observation measurements, utilizing cameras and radars installed for this purpose. In order to accurately refer to the collected data, it is important to know the exact position of the vehicle when taking measurements or taking photos. A drone gps blocker receiver can pinpoint the precise location of a drone, often to the centimeter. The same concept applies to the exact time when a photograph is taken or a measurement is taken. The precise time stamp provided by the drone's GPS is invaluable for gathering such information.
They are cheap, lightweight and can carry small bombs; For groups like Hezbollah, Daesh (also known as the Islamic State, Islamic State, and ISIS), or any other group that wants to wreak havoc on budgets, commercial drones are essentially a new tool of terror.
"This is the quadcopter you can buy on Groupon or go to Sam's Club for $400," Gen. Robert Neller, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, told a forum in Washington on the future of warfare.
Even before the Federal Aviation Administration unveiled proposed regulations for commercial drone flights in the United States last week, one company was already using drone jammer to collect data from unsuspecting citizens in Los Angeles.
AdNear, a Singapore-based location-based marketing company, uses a fleet of off-the-shelf consumer-grade drones to determine the location of a cell phone jammer and its movement by collecting signal strength and other wireless data from passers-by below. With this data, AdNear can offer highly targeted advertising and other promotions to potential customers as they pass through the storefront to incentivize customers to come into the store.
While collecting data from wireless transmissions via drones may be a new concept for marketers, Black Hat hackers have taken an interest in it, having demonstrated the ability to snoop on phones and Wi-Fi networks by using drones to impersonate cell towers, other transmission endpoints.
A string of recent drone-related incidents, including the crash of a drone on the White House lawn in 2015, may not have helped.
The drones, which have varying degrees of advanced weaponry, are currently being used in Syria's civil war and in parts of Lebanon and Syria bordering Israel, where Hezbollah holds a dominant position.
One solution is to use electronic signal jammers to prevent drone operators from flying within a specific area, an approach that has been studied by the U.S. military.
These drones are highly advanced platforms with technology and a price tag that puts them out of reach for all but the most advanced militaries.
Many cheaper, lighter models were more readily available to the guerrilla masses.
Their simplest use is to spy on American activities.
But what worries U.S. military tacticians is their potential for modified, more lethal uses.
Jammers emit low-power signals, creating signal noise and tricking GPS receivers into thinking the satellite is unavailable. They can be used to confuse police and avoid tolls, and some pranksters have also used them to annoy unsuspecting iPhone users.
But the real threat is unknown. Criminals can use them to hide their tracks from law enforcement, and some experts worry that terrorists could use high-powered jammers to disrupt GPS reception on planes or during military operations.
These devices pose a serious social risk, and their purchase and use in the United States is unquestionably illegal. The FCC is optimistic about going after anyone who buys a GPS jammer and will prosecute and jail anyone who uses one. Yet they are easy to buy online, and their supporters say they should stay that way. Fox News can purchase GPS jammers from numerous online sources for as little as $50.
"GPS is closely linked to the transport, manufacturing and economy of our society, so the stakes are high," said David Last, emeritus professor at Bangor University in the UK and a leading authority on the criminal use of GPS jammers.
"This is especially true in telecommunications: GPS is the ultimate source of timing for most of our phone systems, for the Internet, and for cellphones in the United States."
All of these systems are potential prey for signal jammers, which is the main reason they are illegal. But supporters of the devices say they can serve a purpose and that people should have the right to buy them. And, for now, they can.
perfectjammer.com, a Shenzhen-based company, sells cigarette lighter jammer for $99.99 for its satellite signal. perfectjammer.com offers shoppers free nationwide shipping through UPS, FedEx and other companies.
"Our new cigarette lighter jammer is designed to block all possible tracking systems as well as all civilian GPS systems, including GPS L1, GPS L2, and GPS L5. To run the GPS jammer, you simply turn on the switch at the top of the jammer."
But Bruce Romano, legal counsel for the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, said that's not a good enough reason to use jammers. Anyone can hire detectives to scan cars or personal belongings for GPS receivers, he said.
"In addition to breaking the law, or [criminals] thinking they can use them because customs won't detect them, there are all sorts of critical devices that could be affected and could have unintended consequences that could cause problems, and you have no idea that you caused them," Romano said.
Of course, GPS and cell phone jammer are not the most advanced. These devices, which cause signal confusion and disruption, are actually similar to illegal cell phone jammers.
This risk is low for aircraft, which use ground-based radar for guidance and have backup navigation systems that do not rely on satellites. Military personnel use a dedicated GPS network. But GPS interference can still cause cockpit chaos, as pilots have to switch to a backup navigation system. Shipping that relies on GPS coordinates to locate ports could also face problems.
Ronald Repasi, deputy director of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology, said it is illegal to sell, import, possess or use GPS jammers in the United States, and he said the agency aggressively pursues those who use them. He said GPS jammers could pose a potential risk if used incorrectly.
"It depends on the capability of the jamming device," Repasi said. "High-power devices have a larger range and are more likely to cause interference over a wider area than low-power devices."
By comparing these two devices side by side, M 27 and M25 are almost identical. From the installation bracket, CPU, wiring, and interference head, M-27 is no different from its brother. Blinder is ready to use out of the box, including all necessary wiring, external speakers, CPU, and two GPS shielding heads.
Installation is almost effortless. By becoming slightly familiar with automotive electronic devices, amateur installers can easily connect the device. All you need is a power supply and a ground wire. It is easy to wire the signal jammers head through a firewall through telephone type connectors, which are small enough to pass through the smallest hole. Then the rest is to install the GPS interceptor head. This is where it's a bit difficult.
The installation brackets are independent of each other, which means that each side of the jammer head is supported by separate brackets. For normal operation, the jammer head needs to be completely straight and level with the road surface. This means that in order to install the pan tilt correctly, you must find 2 independent and completely horizontal surfaces on the car. If installed on the top of the bumper, this may be easy, but most people do not want to clumsily place two large cell phone jammer heads at the front of the vehicle. It is difficult to complete the correct head installation on many vehicles, which is why most Lens hood users create their own mounting brackets.
Once the head is installed correctly, M27 has made significant improvements compared to the old version. With a more powerful head and fully upgradeable CPU, this new device is ready for all new laser Radar speed gun developed. In most cases, this device will interfere with the LiDAR all the way to the muzzle. However, Blinder did encounter some interference issues.
For certain guns, such as the Ultralyte LR-B, occasional malfunctions may occur. Independent testing has shown that vehicles equipped with two gps jammer heads at the front of the vehicle cannot cover high reflective areas such as headlights. This is a particularly undesirable situation, as police officers are often trained to aim their headlights when they are unable to produce instant and fast readings. To solve this problem, a headlight laser protective cover may be needed. Laser veil is a liquid coating applied to headlights. Applying this technology to the headlights will greatly help Blinder achieve better interference effects.
Another solution is Blinder M47. This is the M27 with two additional interference heads. If users encounter interference when using the M27, two additional heads are very suitable for achieving better results. Two additional jamming heads will enable the vehicle to be bulletproof against most laser Radar speed gun in almost all cases.