GPS spoofing that disrupts aircraft rose by 400 per cent. Will it cause a serious accident?

There has been a disturbing 400 per cent rise in 'GPS spoofing', and even more concerning is thathackers can use this malicious activity to change the clocks on airlines, which means they can 'hack time'.

What is GPS spoofing?

GPS stands for Global Positioning System, a modern satellite-based navigation system used by multiple industries across the world, including aviation and defence. According to an article in antivirus maker McAfee's website, GPS spoofing "is a malicious technique that manipulates" the GPS data, thereby misleading a GPS receiver about its actual location.

"This could potentially cause significant disruptions, as it can misdirect navigation systems, mislead delivery vehicles, or even trick smartphone apps," it noted.

GPS signals areeasy to block or distort, and GPS spoofing has been used to throw missiles and drones off course.

Now, this mode of digital attack has been used against commercial airliners, which has seen a 400 per cent rise according to aviation advisory bodyOPSGROUP.

These attacks were carried around conflict zones too.

Recent examples of GPS spoofing

“We're starting to see reports of the clocks on board airplanes during spoofing events start to do weird things," a Reuters report quoted security expert Ken Munro as saying.

In April, Finnair temporarily paused flights to the eastern Estonian city of Tartu due to GPS spoofing. Estonia blamed Russia for the attack.

Munro said clockon board a Western airline's plane was moved forward by years in a GPS spoofing attack, "causing the plane to lose access to its digitally-encrypted communication systems."

Munro, founder of British cybersecurity company Pen Test Partners, said the plane was grounded for weeks while engineers manually reset its onboard systems, Reuters reported.

Munro, who was speaking at the Def Con cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas this past weekend, declined to identify the airline or aircraft.

“We think too much about GPS being a source of position, but it's actually a source of time,” Munro told the convention on Saturday (Aug 10).

Will GPS spoofing cause a plane crash?

While Munro said it is not going to make a plane crash, GPS spoofing can lead to a chain reaction of events that could end up being serious.

“What it does is, it just creates a little confusion. And you run the risk of starting what we call a cascade of events, where something minor happens, something else minor happens, and then something serious happens," the Reuters reportquoted him as saying.

(With inputs from agencies)