The 1 December “Report on Securing and Growing the Digital Economy” by the President’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity quietly slams eight years of inaction on many issues to protect GPS and PNT. Its recommendations to do things that were required and suggested by presidential order in 2004, and re-validated when the administration took office in 2009, highlight the lack of attention paid to this critical national, homeland, and economic security issue.
The report’s Action Item 1.2.5 starts out recognizing our growing national reliance on GPS, particularly for wireless communications. It then recommends, as an immediate PNT protection effort, a “…national, cross government, public-private initiative to detect, collect, centralize, analyze, and respond to disruptions of wireless communications.”
It also urges the President and Congress “… prioritize national efforts to ensure the continued availability, reliability, redundancy, and overall resiliency of GPS signaling data.”
We will soon have a new President and Congress. Let’s hope they take note and act.
