Image: GPSJam.org
What’s New: A discussion of far reaching impacts of disruptions.
Why It’s Important: The outlet is the FINANCIAL Times. We would be interested in seeing their estimate of the financial impact.
What Else to Know: It seems to us that these kinds of problems only become real, sometimes, when they start to hit people in their wallets. Like when scheduled flights to a city in Estonia are terminated…
How GPS warfare is playing havoc with civilian life
Military activity blamed for surge in jamming and spoofing incidents affecting smartphones, planes and ships
Ships that appear to be sailing through landlocked airports. Dating apps that match Israelis with Lebanese, assuming they are in one place. Tourist flights forced to turn around — mid-air — after sudden navigation troubles.
Such is the fallout from a surge in the manipulation of navigation signals — modern GPS warfare — that has played havoc with civilian smartphones, planes and vessels on three continents. So-called GPS jamming and spoofing have largely been the preserve of militaries over the past two decades, used to defend sensitive sites against drone or missile attacks or mask their own activities.
But systematic interference by armed forces — particularly following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza — has caused widespread issues for civilian populations as well. The footprint of corrupted signals has become vast.
