GPS gets spoofed

In a process dubbed 'spoofing', US researchers at Cornell University have demonstrated that they can trick global positioning systems (GPS) into receiving fake GPS data that they then accept as authentic.

GPS is a US navigation system of more than 30 satellites circling Earth twice a day in specific orbits, transmitting signals to receivers on land, sea and in air to calculate their exact locations.

To demonstrate how a navigation device could be fooled, the researchers, led by Cornell professors Paul Kintner and Mark Psiaki, programmed a briefcase-size GPS receiver, used in ionospheric research, to send out fake signals.

Co-workers Brent Ledvina and Todd Humphreys then showed how the 'phoney' receiver could be placed in the proximity of a navigation device, where it would track, modify and retransmit the signals from the GPS satellite constellation. Gradually, the 'victim' navigation device would mistake the counterfeit navigation signals for the real thing.

'GPS is woven into our technology infrastructure, just like the power grid or the water system,' said Kintner, Cornell professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Cornell GPS Laboratory.