Vulnerable GPS signals

In recent years, cyber attacks on the GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite navigation system have become increasingly known. Especially in aviation, where airplanes, helicopters and drones orient themselves with the help of GPS signals, such criminal attacks pose a great threat, as Armasuisse emphasizes. Using jamming or decoy signals, unknown persons have tried, for example, to divert aircraft from their course or to take control of drones. In principle, all devices in the civilian sector that receive GPS signals are vulnerable and unprotected against such manipulations.

Solution found

Armasuisse's Science and Technology Competence Division, together with researchers from ETH Zurich, TU Kaiserslautern, Ruhr University Bochum and New York University Abu Dhabi, has found a solution. A novel system called Crowd GPS Sec continuously monitors the airspace using digital air traffic signals from aircraft and drones. Using novel algorithms, the researchers were able to demonstrate how false GPS signals can be detected within a few seconds, according to the release. After 15 minutes at the latest, the attacker can be located within a few meters, it said. The special feature of the solution is that the air traffic signals of the aircraft are monitored by a group of volunteers via the Internet (crowdsourcing). Thanks to crowdsourcing, affected organizations could therefore already benefit from the solution today without having to set up their own monitoring infrastructure or change the GPS receivers in aircraft or drones.

Prototype will be presented soon

According to Armasuisse, the system is currently still in prototype form and will be presented in May 2018 in San Francisco (USA) at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. The symposium is considered the world's leading conference in the field of cyber security.

Source: Armasuisse