this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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A 63-hour-long marathon of GPS jamming attacks disrupted global satellite navigation systems for hundreds of aircraft flying through the Baltic region – and Russia is thought to be responsible

Russia is suspected of launching a record-breaking 63-hour-long attack on GPS signals in the Baltic region. The incident, which affected hundreds of passenger jets earlier this month, occurred amid rising tensions between Russia and the NATO military alliance more than two years since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“We have seen an increase in GPS jamming since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and allies have publicly warned that Russia has been behind GPS jamming affecting aviation and shipping,” a NATO official told New Scientist. “Russia has a track record of jamming GPS signals and has a range of capabilities for electronic warfare.”

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[–] foggy@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Is this where the beginning g of the end of free open GPS starts?

Been wondering when we'd have to start paying for the privilege to use an encrypted private GPS service.

[–] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 84 points 7 months ago (3 children)

It wouldn’t matter against jamming though. You just need a jammer that screams louder

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 49 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Yup. As long as you’re transmitting via radio waves, if something on that frequency “screams” louder, you won’t get the original signal. That’s why the FCC has strict rules against radio interference. About the only way you could get past that would be some sort of laser guided/optical communications, but would be damn near impossible given the number of planes and weather conditions.

Luckily the louder something screams the more easy it is to pinpoint.

[–] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean, doesn’t matter. We pinpoint russia and then what. Sure, we can retaliate and block their comma, and radio communication doesn’t work for both of us. We can always invade, but a load of political capital is needed, and the west doesn’t exactly have the most ammo ever right now.

Finally, I think the true source is this

[–] suzune@ani.social 3 points 7 months ago

It's nice that they "scream" there. It's the way you know that they are hiding their ammo and weapons routes there. Instead of complaining, we should target these routes. Hey... they are outside russian borders... so....

[–] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"Our system is unjammable! Just make sure this laser receiver has clear line of sight with three satellites way up in geosynchronous orbit at all times."

"You're fucking with me, right?"

[–] AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No . That's how it would work. That's why we don't use it, because of things like weather, birds, space debris, and other planes. its more secure but technically very difficult.

[–] Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

thatsthejoke.jpeg

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It would matter if they chose not to jam certain frequencies due to some agreement.

Thinking only of GPS-like services, there are multiple suppliers who could take advantage of Russia jamming other services. GPS is only one, owned by the American air force. Other suppliers might be more open to making agreements with Russia. Money can make things happen.

I'm not saying it's like that, only that it is possible for bad actors to benefit from playing on both sides in a jamming war, just like any other kind of war.

[–] cooljacob204@kbin.social -3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In a war like this they jam everything and anything they can. No commercial solutions would be loopholed out of it.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 1 points 7 months ago

... unless money.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world -2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Unless they are on a different wavelength from GPS, which is what Xona is doing.

[–] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ok, then they just block that one

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Do you think country-wide jamming of a high-power radio signal is easy? The magnitude of difference between jamming a building and jamming at airline altitudes or at long distances is massive. You don't just go out and buy a jammer that blocks GPS for a country.

[–] Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I don’t think that for an individual it is easy. But for a country as large as Russia (even with a somewhat pathetic economy)

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago

I work developing the next generation GPS satellites, and half of my job is dealing with defeating jamming. Without giving specifics that can only be shared in a SCIF, jammers are for small regional use, not for large scale usage. RF power drops off at 1/r^2, so doubling the distance requires 4 times the power. A normal person can buy a jammer that handles a few hundred feet around their house or car. It is 100x harder to cover a city block of buildings and is mostly restricted to governments (my math could be off on that, since RF isn't my specialty). Going from jamming a city block of government buildings to jamming flight traffic in a small neighborhood is roughly 100 times as much as that power. Going from that small neighborhood to blocking a very small country is 100 times as much as that power (or 10,000 as much as the power of a big jammer). Doing the same thing but with multiple RF signals is even harder.

I can't talk about Russia's specific capabilities, but even for Russia it wouldn't be easy outside a small region.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That will not fix this, unless your private service flies their own satellites with more transmitter power

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Xona is out there planning their own satellite constellation in their own band of the spectrum (so not jammed at the same time as GPS), and is fully encrypted.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Russia could just as easily jam two signals at once.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Not just as easily. Broad-spectrum jamming is more difficult, so they either develop one of those with enough power to jam both signals (not as easy) or the build twice as many jammers (not as easy).

[–] brianorca@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

Not as easy for individuals. Still relatively easy for a state actor. It's not a magnitude difference, just a difference in degree.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Explain how jamming works. The person isn't saying encryption overcomes jamming, just that encryption will be used to make the new system private and paid instead of free to use. Not being GPS will make it avoid GPS jamming.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter if you encrypt it, it still has to make information out of communication with satellites. Jamming saturates the band range that something is attempting to communicate across. So no sensible information is available because it's all noise

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Did you not read what I said? I said "the person isn't saying that encryption overcomes jamming, just that encryption will be used to make the new system private and paid." At no point did I say or imply that encryption helps overcome jamming. I did say that since they don't transmit on the same frequency as GPS then jamming GPS won't affect it (depending on how close their L-band range is to the GPS L-band range).

I design GPS satellites for a living. I understand how jamming works.

[–] GBU_28@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You asked how jamming works, I simply discussed that.

Even if the new system is encrypted and on another spectrum, that doesn't make it invincible from jamming, the jammer just needs to be adjusted to target it.

All I'm saying is encryption and subscription does not defend from jamming.

Tactics like signal hopping and multi signal parallel processing / handshake help with jamming (plus highly focused and shield directional antennas)

[–] halva@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 7 months ago

that's... not how gps works, y'know?

the satellites only send out signal, they don't care about the ground