Hacking attacks targeting airline GPS systems have surged globally, with a 400% increase in the first 10 months of last year. This rise is linked to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, posing a serious risk to aviation safety. Dutch pilots alone were targeted 983 times in the first 10 months of 2023.
Counterfeit signals sent to planes’ GPS systems ‘present a direct safety threat’ and have increased since Russia invaded Ukraine
“It can lead to false warnings or – equally dangerous – to the absence of warnings. In many ways the real risk is that if pilots get used to discounting fake warnings, they may misinterpret or dismiss a real one.Is this type of attack, of itself, going to cause an aircraft to crash? No, it’s not. What it does is create confusion.
To that list of black spots, OpsGroup adds the Black Sea, Cyprus, northern Iraq , Egypt , and anywhere in the vicinity of Russia, particularly conflict zones. Initially the problems posed by GPS hacks were primarily navigational, says OpsGroup. But because as the GPS technology evolves it is becoming “interwoven” with the aircraft’s other online systems, the problems hacking causes are becoming more difficult to trace and tackle.
Seeing them “running backwards” is often one of the first warning signs of an encounter with a hacker. “Eurocontrol – the EU’s air navigation safety agency – now report seeing this on a daily basis,” says OpsGroup. Earlier this year, Finnair temporarily paused flights to the eastern Estonian city of Tartu as a result of GPS attacks which Tallinn blamed on neighbouring Russia.
GPS Hacking Aviation Security Cyberattacks Russia-Ukraine Conflict Safety Threats
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