Image: Shutterstock (note: most oligarchs are uglier)
What’s new: Impacts from a GPS jammer in Sofia, Bulgaria included disrupted air traffic, disrupted airport ground traffic, and unspecified interference with television broadcasts. The jammer was being used by a wealthy organized crime figure.
Why it’s important: This incident highlights several themes we all need to keep in mind:
- GPS signals are used in a wide variety of important applications.
- The signals are very easy to disrupt.
- Detection of interference and action by enforcement authorities can often lead to uncovering more serious offenses.
What else to know:
- Jammers and spoofers are often used by bad actors to do everything from conceal their locations to lure victims to a location of the bad actor’s choosing.
- The first report just said the jammer was located “in a heavily guarded complex in Dragalevtsi.”
- We are guessing that one of the oligarch’s henchmen left the jammer on accidentally. Either that or someone had no idea what they were doing would highlight them for authorities.
- GPS jamming was just the tip of the iceberg. See the second article below.
- We have always recommended that police officers have a small jammer detector as part of their personal equipment. See items available from RNT Foundation members at the bottom of the post.
Powerful GPS jammer in Sofia has been disrupting aircraft and airport signals
A powerful GPS jammer capable of disrupting satellite navigation signals across parts of Sofia has been located and neutralized in the capital’s Dragalevtsi district in a joint operation involving the State Agency for National Security, the Communications Regulation Commission and the Interior Ministry’s State Security Service.
According to the State Agency for National Security, the device was suppressing GPS frequencies across Sofia, including the area around Vasil Levski Sofia Airport, aircraft flying over the capital and television towers. The discovery has raised concerns about the potential impact of GPS interference on aviation and other critical systems that rely on satellite positioning and timing.
UPDATED Amid GPS Jammer Case, PM Says State Is Moving against People Previously Protected by Police and Security Services
Prime Minister Rumen Radev said here Monday that the State is now moving against people who were previously protected by the police and security services. Radev was commenting on searches and seizures carried out in connection with an investigation into a powerful GPS signal jammer found in Sofia’s Dragalevtsi district last weekend.
“Regardless of whether and how the device was discovered, and regardless of whether and how it interfered with air traffic and various electronic systems in Sofia, there is one indisputable fact: while until recently the police and security services were protecting these people, their names are now becoming known,” Radev told a news conference at the Council of Ministers.
Here he mentioned a notorious business owner known by his alias Ami.
“Can you imagine that, during the time of [Movement for Rights and Freedoms leader Delyan] Peevski and [GERB leader Boyko] Borissov, or under the so-called ‘assemblage’ governments, the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for National Security would enter Ami’s mansions, go as far as the underground rooms, search absolutely everything, seize electronic devices and then even carry out searches at houses in Kapitan Andreevo?” Radev said.
He argued that, until recently, these people and Bulgaria’s political class had been closely connected, with police officers standing outside their properties to protect them. “The police and security services did not even think that they could enter, search, seize and detain. Now the State is doing this and will continue to do so,” Radev said.
The Prime Minister urged members of the public to call the emergency number 112 if they encounter motorcades on the roads or displays of security guards at restaurants and other venues, saying that the Interior Ministry was ready to respond.
“We will not allow the era of mob-style rule to continue to exist in Bulgaria, because it has re-emerged in recent years,” Radev said.
GPS interference detector examples from RNTF Members
Chronos, NavtechGPS, and GPSPATRON
