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Blog Editor’s Note: A great article by Greg Milner, author of “Pinpoint – How GPS is changing technology, culture, and our minds.” Long time RNTF members will recall that Greg spoke at our 2016 annual meeting at the US Naval Observatory just after his book was released. Congressman Garamendi also spoke.
While there might not be a lot of new material in this article for many of our readers it is a good recap. It is also good to see the issue getting space in the popular media.
And it is great press for our friend Todd Humphreys!
How Vulnerable Is G.P.S.?
An engineering professor has proved—and exploited—its vulnerabilities.
In the cool, dark hours after midnight on June 20, 2012, Todd Humphreys made the final preparations for his attack on the Global Positioning System. He stood alone in the middle of White Sands Missile Range, in southern New Mexico, sixty miles north of Juárez. All around him were the glowing gypsum dunes of the Chihuahuan Desert. In the distance, the snow-capped San Andres Mountains loomed.
On a hill about a kilometre away, his team was gathered around a flat metal box the size of a carry-on suitcase. The electronic machinery inside the box was called a spoofer—a weapon by another name. Soon, a Hornet Mini, a drone-operated helicopter popular with law-enforcement and rescue agencies, was scheduled to appear forty feet above them. Then the spoofer would be put to the test.
