GPS saves lives in disaster relief, search and rescue, and transportation and airspace accident prevention. It drives economic productivity around the world, especially in the fields of delivery, construction, meteorology and agriculture. Last but not least, GPS has been an essential part of national security since the Cold War.
The reliability and free functionality of GPS has led to the development of thousands of applications that can be used in many aspects of a user's life. Given the ubiquity of technology that uses GPS to coordinate location and time around the world, it's not hard to imagine the hypothetical chaos that could result from attacking GPS frequencies. Follow this GPS Infrastructure Risk summary to understand how important GPS security is to your business.
Satellite. A satellite of the Earth is any object that orbits it, including the Moon. GPS relies on a constellation of artificial satellites, each equipped with a radio receiver and transmitter, capable of providing coordinated global coverage to devices anywhere on Earth to access time and location services. Currently, there are thousands of satellites operating in Earth orbit for a variety of purposes, including weather forecasting, Internet communications, and global positioning systems.
Global positioning system tracking. GPS tracking refers to the remote monitoring of the position of an entity or object using the Global Positioning System. According to GPs.gov, the U.S. government is committed to ensuring that GPS signals in space will remain 25.6 feet accurate, but average users can generally expect more accurate results.
Problems with the device's mapping hardware or software can also cause incorrect GPS tracking. As for the difference between civilian-grade and military-grade GPS devices, the user range error is the same, but civilian devices typically use one frequency and receivers use two. The benefit of dual-frequency GPS tracking is that it corrects for signal distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere, thereby improving accuracy.
One high-profile example of the potential harm of signal jammers made headlines when Newark Airport in New Jersey was effectively shut down after jammers inside company vehicles interfered with signal fire.
Network tracking. Cyberbullying occurs when someone uses technology to target or harass a victim online. Hacking into devices to track an individual's location and movement without their consent is an example of cyberbullying. This is often done by installing monitoring apps on mobile devices to track locations without people's knowledge.
Location-based services. Location-based services (LBS) are software applications accessed from a mobile device that require information about the device's location. Some LBS are query-based and can answer user questions such as "Where is the nearest gas station?" Others are defined by the push notification model, which distributes marketing materials such as coupons and special offers from area businesses or attractions. LBS is required by law to obtain user permission to track location. Once accepted, the application uses GPS to locate and track the whereabouts of the end user.
