Hey—Texas did something smart!1 By sending fake GPS data to a superyacht’s navigation system, University of Texas students were able to override the actual GPS signals and send an $80 million ship veering off course without rousing any suspicions whatsoever.
The group, led by professor Todd Humphreys, used a device directed towards the ship that sent out false, very weak GPS signals—at first. But slowly, they would increase the signal strength until it eventually overpowered the legitimate satellite signals beaming down at the (privately owned, professionally staffed) superyacht. This way, the spoof is nearly undetectable by the time it reaches full force, no alarms sound, and the ship is steadily on its way to—well, wherever the hell you want.
Of course, since this was a controlled experiment, the spoof was performed with the yacht owner’s full permission, but it exposes a major, potentially highly dangerous flaw in land and sea transportation networks. And according to the Houston Chronicle, about 90% of the world’s freight is transported overseas.
There are a few ways to patch up this hole, but considering other transportations systems—such as planes, for instance—might be equally vulnerable, this relatively simple, nearly unnoticeable attack could do some major damage in the wrong hands. [Chron via Digg]
1 It’s cool, guys. I’m from Texas.
