Image: NOAA
Blog Editor’s Note: Yup. This will be a problem for some time to come. Not one that can be solved, probably, but undoubtedly one that can be managed.
Key to management is greater cybersecurity through the entire navigation and reporting chain, along with diverse sources of PNT to validate location information or quickly highlight when it is suspect.
US foes evade sanctions by deploying digital warfare tech to hide vessels at sea
Countries such as Iran, Venezuela move oil in defiance of US by manipulating ships’ GPS; Israeli head of maritime intelligence company: Companies use tech on ‘astonishing’ scale
MIAMI (AP) — Technology to hide a ship’s location previously available only to the world’s militaries is spreading fast through the global maritime industry as governments from Iran to Venezuela — and the rogue shipping companies they depend on to move their petroleum products — look for stealthier ways to circumvent US sanctions.
Windward, a maritime intelligence company whose data is used by the US government to investigate sanctions violations, said that since January 2020 it has detected more than 200 vessels involved in over 350 incidents in which they appear to have electronically manipulated their GPS location.
