Nation-states attacking financial institutions and power grids, and organized criminals stealing high value assets were deemed among the most likely spoofing scenarios in a recent presentation by Fugro.

Discussing “the world of spoofing,” as part of a presentation to the Dutch Institute for Navigation’s workshop on GNSS Interference and Authentication, the presentation discussed motivations behind spoofing. the different bad actors involved, and how likely such events were to occur.

Spoofing to protect high value assets was listed among the scenarios. Many believe that much of the spoofing seen in Moscow, the Black Sea and Baltic is part of a Russian drone defense system for VIPs and high value assets. Most drones are programmed at the factory with the location of airports and to fly away from airports. Spoofing the vicinity of a high value asset to make it appear to be an airport would prevent these drones from intruding.

Concern about the susceptibility of many receivers to spoofing and jamming has increased greatly over the last 12 months as a result of the events in Russia and elsewhere around the world.  The RNT Foundation and ATIS are co-sponsoring a free workshop about smart/resilient timing receivers on the 17th of April in the Washington, DC area. Click here to find out more and register.

For another look at the threats of interference with GPS/GNSS and the probable impacts, see RNT Foundation’s paper “Prioritizing Dangers to the United States from Threats to GPS.”