The massive GPS weakness revealed

[blaaah]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20202-gps-fail-how-a-little-black-box-could-cause-chaos.html?page=1
Really does sound like a lot of chaos waiting to happen.
And easily and cheaply. I sometimes wonder why people bother with guns and bombs when there are so many other ways of causing devastation.
It also made me think of advising people who have a nice expensive car to not put much faith in the "Tracker" type GPS police associated car recovery systems, as any criminal that gets as far as actually plotting and stealing a supercar to order will have a £15 plastic box to stop him being tracked....

 

[Azuremen]

The world will not end if a GPS system is interfered with. None of this is new knowledge, as you can easily obtain jamming devices for cheap from sites like dealextreme.

And if a car is stolen the system has to be left on constantly. Honestly, there are limits to technology; why are people always surprised when they are shown? Hell, most GPS systems won't work in a parking garage. Plenty of ways to defeat the system.

This wouldn't case any devastation - anything critical or sensitive has other fail safes and training involved.

 

[blaaah]

But if a million Muslims purchased one of those boxes each, and turned them on at home, that would cause quite a lot of chaos. And not easily rectified.

 

[Azuremen]

But if a million Muslims purchased one of those boxes each, and turned them on at home, that would cause quite a lot of chaos. And not easily rectified.

Way to roll borderline racism. The small boxes have a very limited range, and anything that would generate a serious amount of jamming would cost a considerable sum of money.

I really advise you to stop reading New Scientist and to perhaps start thinking for yourself a bit more. With a touch more rational thinking.

 

[blaaah]

I didn't think Muslim was a race of peoples, but a religious group?
Ok I will obey your advice and not report news. Or maybe I won't.

 

[Azuremen]

I didn't think Muslim was a race of peoples, but a religious group?
An Englishman can be a Muslim, so can a Frenchman.
Either way they are both a bit of a joke.

Thus why I said borderline. Your jokes lack of a punch line or much subtle humor I must say.

 

[Joey D]

But if a million Muslims purchased one of those boxes each, and turned them on at home, that would cause quite a lot of chaos. And not easily rectified.

Why would a Muslim buy one and train it on a house?

 

[blaaah]

They have a range to take out hundreds of buildings/shops whatever within a few KM radius, potentially.

Thus why I said borderline. Your jokes lack of a punch line or much subtle humor I must say.

Maybe my Jedi humour is out of practice.

 

[Lain]

Hooyah, I'll probably be heading to one of those ships in San Diego later this year.

 

[Joey D]

They have a range to take out hundreds of buildings/shops whatever within a few KM radius, potentially.

But why a Muslim? The guy down the street in Muslim, he'd probably look at this and wonder what the hell to do with it and go back to gardening or washing his car.

 

[gary31]

But why a Muslim? The guy down the street in Muslim, he'd probably look at this and wonder what the hell to do with it and go back to gardening or washing his car.

I think its because he thinks that all Muslims are Terrorists.

 

[blaaah]

That bit was half dramatic for Azureman (terrorist reasons i.e. a religious civil war). But any organised group could arrange something, a bit like botnets when they attacked places on behalf of wikileaks. With the high number of them being able to be deployed, it is a risk.

I think its because he thinks that all Muslims are Terrorists.

No, i don't think that. Just all potential terrorists, just like anyone can be a potential terrorist, irrespective of faith. I need a group though to select then, let's say a million gardeners. Outraged at the lack of plant choice. They could act together and bring down the economy.

 

[Joel]

 

[blaaah]

Good timing.

 

[icelt]

Visit any continent, country, state or city on the surface of the globe and you will find "extremists" willing to kill in the name of their cause. So to selectively assign this inherent anti-social trait prejudicially to any one sub-demographic says more about the speaker's "issues" than the target's.

Was the tragedy at Oklahoma City the work of terrorists? And if not, then why does "terrorism" only apply to those not associated with "western" cultures?

Hell, as a natural US Citizen even I can acknowledge that given our current discourse on what is classified as "terrorism" that our Revolutionary War, from the perspective of the English Royal Monarchy, today would likely be classified as a terrorist uprising.

 

[spiker]

Hell, as a natural US Citizen even I can acknowledge that given our current discourse on what is classified as "terrorism" that our Revolutionary War, from the perspective of the English Royal Monarchy, today would likely be classified as a terrorist uprising.

Not just "likely", but more like "100% absolutely".

 

[Alex.]

No, i don't think that. Just all potential terrorists, just like anyone can be a potential terrorist, irrespective of faith. I need a group though to select then, let's say a million gardeners.

Hey how about this group? "Terrorists"

 

[Danoff]

GPS jamming has been around for quite a while (which I presume is why the military was simulating it). There's not really anything that can be done about that. We just have to continue to augment our GPS system with ground-based navigation like using Cell tower triangulation and wifi locations etc.

The real insidious threat would be if the GPS signal could be spoofed so that you'd think you had a good lock on where you were but you really didn't. An airplane can still land if it can't get a GPS lock (they used to do it all the time), but if the pilot thinks he/she has a GPS lock and doesn't, they might try to land 500 feet below the earth's surface. Luckily, anti-spoofing was a major concern when GPS was designed and implemented.I don't think it's feasible to fake a GPS signal.

 

[zedextreme8177]

I didn't think Muslim was a race of peoples, but a religious group?
Ok I will obey your advice and not report news. Or maybe I won't.

You do realise that you're talking about 1.5 billion people, or 23% of the world population

Where has common sense gone?

Anyways, the whole GPS jamming thing is common knowledge. We are relying way too much on it, which could fail anytime.

 

[Famine]

Not a commercial plane - ILS localiser beacons are screwed onto the ground at commercial airports. Don't know if military planes use GPS in place of ILS though.

 

[Danoff]

Not a commercial plane - ILS localiser beacons are screwed onto the ground at commercial airports. Don't know if military planes use GPS in place of ILS though.

Well, it was more of an example than a credible scenario (and not a very good one at that). Aircraft have lots of sensors to give them altitude, and GPS gives crappy altitude numbers anyway, so they're not likely to try to land using GPS alone.

 

[Famine]

I thought you'd been watching Die Hard 2 again

 

[Danoff]

I thought you'd been watching Die Hard 2 again

Thank you. I knew I'd seen that somewhere. Couldn't put my finger on it.