Report: Society Too Reliant On GPS Systems

By Gabriel Perna | March 9, 2011 9:30 AM EST

Report: Society Too Reliant On GPS Systems - International Business Times

A new report from the Royal Academy of Engineering in London suggests developed nations have become too reliant on GPS systems.

The report from the Academy focuses on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and their vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities include deliberate or accidental interference, both man-made (such as jamming) and natural (such as solar flares). While most people equate GPS systems with the tiny screens which get drivers from point A to point B, the report says society's reliance on the technology goes well beyond that. The Academy says the range of applications using the technology is so vast that without adequate independent backup, signal failure or interference could potentially affect safety systems and other critical parts of the economy.

* (Photo: Reuters)<br>A report from The Royal Academy of Engineering says developed nations have become too reliant on global navigation satellite systems.

In the U.K., on top of satellite navigation, GNSS is used for data networks, financial systems, shipping and air transport, agriculture, railways and emergency services. The European Commission recently estimated an €800 billion ($1.1 trillion US) chunk of the European economy is already dependent on GNSS.

The vulnerabilities in these systems, the Academy says, could have dire consequences if exposed. The Academy says a ship, for example, directed slightly off course by faulty data could be steered into danger. This kind of error from a GNSS is what the Academy calls a "dangerously misleading" mistake. While some GNSS issues are obvious, and can be corrected quickly, these types of mistakes are hard to catch on at first glance, but still can lead to bad outcomes.

"GPS and other GNSS are so useful and so cheap to build into equipment that we have become almost blindly reliant on the data they give us," said Dr. Martyn Thomas, chairman of the Academy's GNSS working group, in a statement. "A significant failure of GPS could cause lots of services to fail at the same time, including many that are thought to be completely independent of each other. The use of non-GNSS back ups is important across all critical uses of GNSS."

The report also mentions criminal use of jamming equipment to bypass GNSS systems. This kind of illegal activity would allow criminals to block tracking of consignments of goods or to defraud systems that collect revenue using GNSS. All told, Dr. Thomas says even if the Academy's recommendations on how to improve GNSS vulernabilities, the technology comes with a lot of unanswered questions.

"No one has a complete picture of the many ways in which we have become dependent on weak signals 12,000 miles above us," he said.

__________________
"Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it."-- Mark Twain

"Inter arma silent Musae"--when the weapons speak, the muses fall silent.

An't nanum hearm deth, doth hwaet ye willath.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished
unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. -Voltaire

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eBay UK currently has 12 GPS jammer suppliers offering, starting from £18.73. Backup from the Russian and European equivalent systems, if they get off the ground, is no solution. They can be just as easily jammed.

The Korea Times reported on 6th March:

North Korea recently jammed GPS signals in South Korea in an apparent bid to disrupt Seoul's annual military drills with U.S. forces, government sources said Sunday.

GPS signals in Seoul and nearby cities, including Incheon and Paju, were temporarily disrupted on Friday afternoon, causing mobile phones and certain military equipment in the area to malfunction, the sources said.

"My understanding is that errors were detected in a very few equipment within the telecom industry," a defense official said. "Some measurement equipment in artillery units was also affected but only very slightly."

The jamming signals are thought to have come from vehicle-mountable devices at military units north of the inter-Korean border. Former Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said in October that he had intelligence that the communist regime had imported from Russia such devices capable of jamming GPS signals.

"The jamming signals came sporadically every five to 10 minutes," an intelligence official said, adding that North Korea was likely testing its imported devices.

Defense and intelligence officials said they suspect the jamming was aimed at disrupting the annual Key Resolve military drills between South Korean and U.S. forces, which started four days before the malfunctioning incident.

If the effect of the North Korean attack was that modest (assuming that the South Koreans are not lying) then maybe GPS jamming will be a less Apocalyptic problem than the OP claims.

So what do we do? Go back to a map and compass? Hide in our cellars praying for the rapture?

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Long report on this: Chicken Little report: Sat-nav dependency spells DISASTER! ? The Register

I've already mentioned that I can't stand the Register's insufferably smug tone, especially when writing on defence matters, but this one isn't too bad.

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Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.