月別アーカイブ: 2023年10月

Latest News: A media article about multiple signal jammers disrupting French airport operations. Once the authorities discovered one, they discovered another, and then another!

Why It’s Important:

1. GPS interference at airports can cause flight delays.
2. Many airlines will not let the plane leave the gate without a good GPS lock.
3. We have already seen cases of outages affecting landing systems. See: Events in Denver-Newark
4. In the worst-case scenario, an outage, even an unexpected one, can result in loss of life. Check out the thrills of Sun Valley.

What Else to Know:

• The EU STRIKE3 project has identified many cases of interference in or near airports.
• News reports like this about flight delays happen from time to time.
• In the United States, the FCC is the regulatory agency responsible for preventing such incidents and enforcing the rules.
• uUnfortunately, over the past two decades, the FCC has significantly reduced the number of personnel and equipment suitable for the job..

ANFR Fighting against phone jammer

Candice Clark 18 July 2023

In France, the National Spectrum Administration (ANFR) is responsible for enforcing rules banning radio jammers, including those that interfere with GNSS services. The availability of GNSS data is critical for many critical applications, so disruptions to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and Beidou are as serious as cyber attacks.

ANFR’s sworn representatives have the authority to investigate violations of national spectrum use regulations. They are often used to locate active gps jammer, either on a vehicle or in a fixed location. Catherine Gabay, ANFR Deputy Director for Frequency Monitoring and Enforcement, reported on some recent cases during the 2023 International Symposium on Navigation and Timing Technologies (ITSNT) in Toulouse.

In March 2023, an instance happened near Merville airport. The Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) notified ANFR of interference on the L1 frequency, which was disrupting flights and air ambulance helicopters. ANFR agents quickly reviewed in-flight information and discovered a GNSS jammer aboard a commercial vehicle. The police were brought in to assist with the seizure of the equipment, and the driver was arrested.

Starlink and other low-Earth orbit constellations face new security risks

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 really threw Ukrainian communications into a tailspin: Shortly before the invasion, Russian hackers disabled Viasat satellite ground receivers across Europe. Then entrepreneur Elon Musk stepped in and offered access to Starlink, SpaceX’s growing network of low-Earth orbit (LEO) communications satellites. Musk soon reported that Starlink was suffering from cell phone jamming attacks and software countermeasures.

In March, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) concluded that Russia was still trying to block Starlink, according to leaked documents from U.S. National Guard pilot Ryan Teixeira seen by The Washington Post. According to the “Defense One” website, the Ukrainian military also blamed the Starlink problem on Russian gps jamming. If Russia blocks low-Earth orbit constellations, this will be a new height in the silent war between space and earth communications.

“There’s really not a lot of information about it,” said Brian Weeden, program director at the Secure World Foundation, an NGO focused on space governance. However, Weeden added, “My sense is that Starlink is harder to jam or interfere with [than GPS satellites].”

LEO satellites face new security risks

Regardless of their altitude or size, communications satellites transmit more power and therefore require more energy to jam than navigation satellites. However, low-Earth-orbiting satellites orbiting the Earth at altitudes of 2,000 kilometers or less switch frequently, which “results in delays and creates more interference” than large geostationary satellites, said Mark, professor of data protection and data protection. Mark Manulis said. Applied cryptography at the Cyber ​​Defense Institute (CODE) of the Bundeswehr University Munich.

Security and communications researchers have mostly studied defenses and countermeasures behind closed doors, but several publications and open-source research have revealed how unprepared many low-Earth orbit satellites are for a direct attack, and what defenses may be needed for future low-Earth orbit satellites.

For years, private companies and government agencies have been planning low-Earth orbit constellations, each with thousands of satellites. For example, the Department of Defense has been designing its own network of low-Earth orbit satellites to complement its more traditional geostationary constellation for more than a decade and has begun awarding contracts to build it. University research groups also launch miniature standardized CubeSats (CubeSats) into low Earth orbit for research and demonstration purposes. This proliferation of satellite constellations coincides with the emergence of off-the-shelf components and software-defined radio—both of which make the satellites more affordable, but perhaps less secure.

Russian defense authorities have commissioned a system called “Tobol” to counter jammers that could interfere with Russian satellites, journalist and author Bart Hendricks reports. This means that either Russia can deliver jamming signals to satellites, or it suspects that its adversaries can.

Many agencies and organizations launching the latest generation of low-cost satellites have yet to address the biggest safety issues they face, researchers write in the 2022 Low Earth Orbit Safety Report. This may be because one of the lures of low-Earth orbit is the relatively cheap ability of new hardware to handle smaller tasks.

“Satellites are getting smaller and smaller. Their purpose is very clear,” said Ijaz Ahmad, a telecommunications security researcher at the VTT Technology Research Center in Espoo, Finland. “Less resources are devoted to computing power, processing, and storage.” Lower computing power means less encryption capabilities and a lower ability to detect and respond to outages or other proactive outages.

The rise of software-defined radio (SDR) is also making it easier to deploy hardware for new missions, including the ability of small satellites to cover multiple frequency bands. “When you make it programmable, you provide some kind of remote connection to that hardware so that you can program it. But if you ignore the security aspect, there are serious consequences,” Ahmed said.

WINDSOR LOCKS: Tech-savvy burglars targeted homes in Connecticut and Massachusetts and broke into a home there after receiving details about the security systems from fellow homeowners, according to arrest warrants issued Friday.

Matthew Colon, 31, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, was arrested for conspiracy to commit first-degree burglary and conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary. Enrique Santiago, 37, of Springfield, Mass., was charged with first-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, theft of a firearm and conspiracy.

Police said they expected to arrest a third man in the case, which was linked to other burglaries involving heightened surveillance and information about when the homeowner left, according to Colon’s arrest warrant.

Early on May 20, 2022, a Green Manor Terrace resident called Long Island police to report that surveillance cameras showed two men walking through his backyard. The arrest warrant states that officers who stopped the burglary found a broken rear sliding glass door and a collection of discarded evidence near the home, including a Wi-Fi jammers, a portable radio, a glass punching tool, A crowbar and bolt cutters.

Burglars broke through the chain link fence and disabled security cameras with manual and Wi-Fi gps blockers, but the poolside cameras were beyond the phone jammer, Windsor Locks Detective Chief Jeff Lampson wrote in Windsor Locks range and continue recording. Affidavit Warrant. The homeowner reported $4,200 in cash missing, along with a man’s watch, jewelry and his wife’s 9 mm handgun, the search warrant said.

On May 26, a resident two doors down found a pillowcase containing a watch, a gun and other items the victims identified as belonging to them, police said. Police said the location of the bag of stolen goods and a backpack containing a WiFi jammer showed the thieves fled in different directions after the break-in.

Lampson said Friday that federal law prohibits the use or operation of jamming devices and that federal investigators are interested in the case. He said police in the area have noticed the devices are increasingly being used in burglaries.

In this case, however, police say it was DNA that led to the thief’s demise. During a search of the Green Manor Terrace property on May 23, a homeowner told police she found a pair of gloves she had never seen before and handed them over to investigators. Police submitted swabs from the gloves and other evidence they suspected the thieves had come into contact with to the state forensic laboratory.

Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant that on Aug. 16, the San Diego lab reported “criminal conduct” with DNA on the gloves. Police said the same DNA was linked to two previous burglary investigations, including a 2010 car break-in in Middletown and a 2012 break-in in South Hadley, Mass., where a gun was stolen. Santiago was arrested in both cases, according to arrest warrants.

Santiago, through his attorney, told Windsor Lock investigators that a man who drove a black sedan and whose father owned a tuning company coordinated the break-in at Green Manor Terrace, the warrant said. When Lampson asked the homeowner if he knew anyone matching that description, the man immediately identified Colon, a co-worker at a home health care company in East Longmeadow, Mass., Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant.

The homeowner said he considered Colon a friend and told him about a trip to Long Island last May, the warrant said. The victim also said Colon and his father helped him remodel the home, the warrant said. He said Matthew Colon had been to his home multiple times and was aware of the security camera system, the warrant states.

When faced with the victim’s statements and evidence of the burglary, Colon told police he was “tricked” into the burglary plan by a third suspect in the case.

The suspect’s girlfriend also worked in home health care with the Colon and Windsor Locks victims. Lampson wrote in the arrest warrant that other workers at the company reported break-ins at their homes in Massachusetts, including one woman who said Colon had come to her home to help repair a gazebo before the break-in.

Cellphone records showed calls between Colon, Santiago and the unidentified suspect in the Windsor Locks burglary before and after the break-in, the warrant stated. Police said the third suspect is a felon with a long criminal record that includes armed robbery and numerous burglaries.

Santiago also has a long rap sheet, including convictions in Connecticut for burglary and larceny, the warrant stated. Massachusetts investigators said they believe he is part of a criminal organisation involved in targeted burglaries, according to the warrant. He posted US$150,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Hartford on May 31. Colon posted bond of US$100,000 and is to appear in court on May 2.