ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE ARTICLES1, 2, 3, the Russians are hacking the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) that provides location information to ships and aircraft.
The GNSS is the primary source for military and commercial GPS navigation devices.
YEARS AGO I LIVED next door to a former WW 2 Navy navigator.
My neighbor sneered at the Air Force pilots who depended solely on electronics to find out where they were, especially when flying over water.
My neighbor said that in the Navy, sailors with navigation tasks had to know how to use a sextant to “shoot the stars” or the sun.
Unlike the war planes of yesteryear, commercial aircraft lack windows over the cockpit, making it difficult for crew members to get a sextant fix on a heavenly body — assuming, of course, that any of the crew knows HOW to use a sextant.
Blue water sailors may still learn to use a sextant; once land is out of sight, land marks cease to exist.
It was not mentioned in the articles, but Russia’s confusing the GNSS might send modern missiles astray; an Israeli rocket targeting an Iranians military installation in Syria might end up landing on the presidential palace.
Apparently most of the mucking about is to protect Russia’s president, but what are the limits on the hacking device? Fifty miles, 500 miles, 5,000 miles?
If an airplane is flying the great circle route from, say Toronto Canada to London England, could the aircraft’s navigation system be “spoofed” to send it farther south, increasing the distance between the two points and, by extension, increasing fuel consumption, perhaps sufficient to cause the aircraft to end up short of its destination and “somewhere” in the Atlantic? Granted that might be a “worst case” scenario, but given the technology on the ground and the over-dependence of technology in the air, the “worst case” is in the realm of reality.
Truth in blogging. I am a former enterprise risk management practitioner and I look at everything with its possible risks. I also am slated to fly to Europe in the summer.
According to one of the web sites cited below, The satellite navigation systems in the control rooms of more than 24 ships anchored nearby suddenly started displaying false information about their location. Their GPS systems told their captains they were anchored more than 65 kilometres (ed: about 40 miles) away — on land, at the Anapa Airport.
The potential for mischief is beyond comprehension.
Less so for ships at sea, although ships have time commitments and fuel limitations at least they are designed for the waters, unlike most commercial aircraft.
The way technology is advancing we may soon find ourselves writing letters on paper, using sextants and paper maps to navigate from A to C via B, and dusting off slide rules for calculations.
Given all the “smart” appliances, will we see the return of ice boxes and the ice man? Maybe the candle and lamp oil industries will find expanded markets?
Have we tripped on our “great technological leap forward”?
Sources
1. http://tinyurl.com/y62qzznk
2. http://tinyurl.com/y3t99pbr
3. http://tinyurl.com/yx9jvh7u
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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