Trade experiences present a 500 per cent improve in GPS spoofing incidents in 2024, with roughly 1,500 flights affected day by day by mid-year, in comparison with simply 300 per day in early 2024, in response to Ivan Pisarev, Regional Technical Lead – META at Group-IB. Within the one-month interval from July 15 to August 15, 2024 alone, roughly 41,000 flights skilled spoofing incidents.
“What was as soon as a uncommon technical subject is now turning into more and more essential, and it’s already impacting not solely the aviation sector but in addition on a regular basis customers,” Pisarev informed Arabian Enterprise.
Latest incidents have included ships showing in incorrect areas, business flights shedding satellite tv for pc alerts mid-air, and even cell phone clocks displaying flawed instances — occasions which have been seen within the UAE and globally, consultants stated. A notable maritime incident in mid-June 2025 close to the Strait of Hormuz contributed to a collision when GPS interference affected navigation techniques.
Past navigation
Whereas most customers affiliate GPS with navigation apps, its function extends far past instructions to the closest café.
“GPS isn’t just about the place you’re, it’s about if you end up, too,” defined Luca Ferrara, Normal Supervisor at AQNav, SandboxAQ. “Banks rely on it to time-stamp monetary transactions. Knowledge centres use it to maintain their databases aligned. Telecom networks use it to handle visitors.”
Pisarev added that GPS “quietly turns into a spine expertise for every thing from aviation and agriculture to cellular networks and monetary markets.”
The European Company for the House Programme initiatives annual shipments of World Navigation Satellite tv for pc System (GNSS) receivers to develop from 1.8 billion models to 2.5 billion models by 2031, underscoring the increasing reliance on this expertise.
Rising threats
GPS alerts are inherently weak on account of their public nature, consultants stated.
“Jamming is a rising concern, and it’s comparatively straightforward to do,” Ferrara famous. “You possibly can consider it like noise-cancelling headphones. By broadcasting alerts that ‘cancel out’ GPS, even a small, low-power machine, the dimensions of a walkie-talkie can disrupt receivers.”
Extra regarding is spoofing, the place gadgets mimic genuine GPS alerts to trick receivers into reporting false areas.
The surge in assaults started notably in September 2023, with civil aviation spoofing growing dramatically. Total, 2024 noticed a 62 per cent bounce in GPS disruptions over battle zones in comparison with 2023 — 430,000 incidents versus 260,000 the earlier 12 months.
The Gulf area faces explicit challenges on account of its geopolitical significance and function as a world air journey hub.
“Because of geopolitical causes, we’d count on GPS jamming and spoofing to be prevalent every day for defensive causes alone,” Ferrara stated. “It’s also potential that intentional spoofing may very well be occurring to create disinformation which will increase the fog of conflict so to talk.”
Regional information reveals roughly 200 flights per day are at the moment impacted by spoofing over the Gulf and Israel. In different hotspots, such because the Baltic Sea, a single jamming incident on March 23-24, 2024, affected over 1,600 plane.
‘Single level of failure’
The widespread dependence on GPS has created what consultants describe as a “single level of failure” in world infrastructure.
“The results fluctuate — from comparatively minor points like rideshare delays to way more critical dangers,” Pisarev stated. “Emergency responders might lose essential location information. Self-driving techniques can go off-route. Supply networks can stall.”
Present fallback techniques are sometimes outdated and inefficient. In aviation, for instance, pilots should revert to communication with management towers and inertial navigation techniques that lose accuracy over time.
“If an plane have been to have its GPS disrupted, then usually, the pilot has to radio the closest management tower, the place operators would use radar to pinpoint the airplane’s place and hold them heading in the right direction,” Ferrara defined. “However these towers are already busy, and you may think about how shortly that system can be overwhelmed if dozens or tons of of plane misplaced GPS directly.”
Pilots have reported false terrain warnings and numerous techniques malfunctioning, together with Enhanced Floor Proximity Warning Techniques (EGPWS), flight administration techniques, and computerized dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B).
Subsequent-generation options
Trade and governments are creating different navigation applied sciences to deal with these vulnerabilities.
One method includes utilizing a number of GNSS techniques concurrently — combining GPS with alerts from Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou to extend resistance to spoofing.
“One key shift is towards multi-GNSS — gadgets that use not simply GPS, but in addition alerts from Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou. This dramatically will increase resistance to spoofing, since disrupting 4 techniques concurrently is much extra advanced,” stated Pisarev.
Regulatory our bodies are additionally taking motion. The European Union plans to boost Galileo authentication and encryption techniques, with enhancements anticipated to be prepared by 2026. In the meantime, the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (IATA), the European Union Aviation Security Company (EASA), and numerous nationwide aviation authorities have issued steerage bulletins on dealing with GPS disruptions.
Extra revolutionary options are additionally rising. SandboxAQ has developed a system known as AQNav that makes use of Earth’s magnetic area for navigation, just like how birds and whales navigate naturally.
“We’ve utilized the identical precept to create extremely detailed magnetic maps of the Earth, which our techniques can use for positioning even when GPS is down,” Ferrara stated. “This expertise… is already being examined with the US Air Pressure, Airbus, and Boeing, and exhibiting robust promise.”
The UK has made important progress with quantum navigation, conducting a trial in Might 2024 at MoD Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, the place an Avro RJ100 plane was geared up with quantum navigation gear that used ultracold atoms to energy quantum accelerometers and gyroscopes.
“The UK has already dedicated to deploying quantum navigation techniques on all their business plane by 2030. This expertise may change into the way forward for aeronautical navigation,” Pisarev famous.
The trail ahead?
Consultants emphasised that addressing GPS vulnerabilities requires a multi-faceted method.
“It is very important perceive that lively measures to counter this downside are already being taken, each by way of bettering technical options and in information sharing,” Pisarev stated. “It’s unattainable to beat such a posh subject with a single technique — what is required is the precise structure.”
His beneficial framework contains: extra alerts than interference, smarter receivers, techniques that don’t lose time, and visibility of assaults by means of monitoring and customary reporting requirements.
Ferrara burdened the necessity for quicker implementation of latest applied sciences. “Whereas many committees and experiences have been written of late, there must be extra concerted efforts to introduce new applied sciences, processes, and procedures into the operations of airways, shippers, and logistics firms to enhance resiliency to GPS outages.”
As autonomous techniques change into extra prevalent in world economies, consultants consider the urgency of addressing GPS vulnerabilities will solely improve.
“As we search to extend autonomy in our economies, the problem of GPS reliance will solely change into extra acute,” Ferrara stated.
“It’s incumbent on us to fortify and diversify how techniques place themselves, get time, and navigate, so they’re in the end much less reliant on a single piece of what has been a very revolutionary expertise in GPS.”
