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As useful as the system is, the technology is vulnerable to attack.
The relatively weak signals sent out by the satellites can be spoofed by stronger signals, sending receivers off-course. One example is the Iran-US RQ-170 incident in which an Iranian cyber warfare unit spoofed a UAV into landing in Iran. Students from the University of Texas at Austin also have conducted tests in which they took control of drones and an $80 million yacht using GPS spoofing.
The signal can also be jammed with small, low-power devices that can be easily bought on the Internet and have been used to hide locations or commit crimes. Last year, an engineer from New Jersey, in an effort to hide his whereabouts from his employers, used one of the devices to jam an airport GPS navigation system whenever he passed by.
gardener
What about in other countries? And what about when GPS falters -- where will the military turn?!?
Today marks the 25th birthday of an invention which has changed humanity forever, and created a new virtual world within a generation.
World Wide Web was created by British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee. The only hint of its importance a tattered white sticker with the warning: “This machine is a server: DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!”
It may be hard to believe now, but the worldwide web did not exist 25 years ago - until Sir Tim invented a way of using networks of computers to talk to each other.
I don't know the military strategy for dealing with overall loss of GPS, but I can tell you I saw a documentary crew filming aboard a US navy ship. The crewman was using a sextant sighting to astronomical objects to navigate the ship, as a backup to GPS, so apparently if GPS goes down the Navy ships can navigate the old fashioned way, without GPS.
gardener
What about in other countries? And what about when GPS falters -- where will the military turn?!?