GPS Spoofing in India: Expert Jiten Jain Warns of Fake Signals Hijacking Plane Routes

Asianet News English

Cybersecurity expert Jiten Jain reveals how GPS spoofing at major Indian airports like Delhi overrides real satellite signals with stronger fakes from ground devices, tricking aircraft into wrong locations and timings—potentially causing grid collapses or flight chaos. Pilots switch to reliable ground-based backups like ILS radars, proven since the 1950s, but heavy GPS reliance in low-visibility ops creates confusion, delays, and life-critical risks during final approaches or low-fuel scenarios.&nbsp;

Transcript

00:00joining me today is a leading voice in the cyber security space in india mr jitain jain first of

00:16all thank you so much mr jain for speaking with asianet news on the incidents of gps spoofing

00:23which took place in india at some of the major airports thanks enough for having me mr jain i

00:28want to start with you telling our viewers in a very simple language because we generally hear

00:34about gps jamming but talk to me about what is gps spoofing so that they can understand how dangerous

00:41the situation can get essentially you know to start with for ordinary people to understand

00:47gps is basically a constellation of satellites which using the you know atomic clock on board

00:54satellites the navigational data and the on-ground sensors tell you the exact location

00:58of your mobile device or the receiver like you know when you're driving you try and use google maps

01:04it does get assisted gps location where satellite is guiding your exact location where do you want to

01:09go so it can help you do three things a it can give you the exact location it can give you navigation

01:14data it can give you the exact time because all these gps gps satellites support atomic clocks on

01:20board so it can tell you the exact time uh you know which is like perfect to the nanoseconds and

01:25uh so now uh what so gps jamming is where somebody jams a signal you are not able to know where you are

01:33you are not able to use the gps data you are not able to receive the signal uh when it comes to spoofing

01:38you are not jamming the signal but you are in a way overriding the signal with a you know bigger strength

01:43and the fake data so you are basically broadcasting a signal from a fake gps device uh mimicking a

01:50satellite uh with a bigger strength than the fake data so the receiver uh you know straight into

01:55believing that this uh you know more uh this new signal with a better strength is the actual gps

02:01satellite signal when you get hooked on to that fake gps signal you get wrong locations which in turn

02:07might lead you to the wrong navigational data it might give you the wrong time so if you are able to

02:12broadcast a fake gps signal you can make a power grid collapse because you can give it the fake

02:16time stamping data you can give wrong navigational data to vehicles aircraft to many other people

02:22so once you have the wrong location obviously the navigation data will also be wrong now if suppose

02:27though usually you know in aircraft if the gps data is not working off it is wrong or a pilot is

02:31in some sort of doubt they can always cross verify or switch over to the ground-based navigation where

02:35they have got integrated landing system radars ground-based uh navigational radars so they can they

02:40have those backup navigation options i was coming to that uh mr jen if i can interrupt you here

02:45for example when a pilot is flying a plane and suddenly he gets to know that there is a there

02:51is an incident of gps spoofing and then he tries to switch to the other layers of redundancy or should

02:57i say non-gps backups uh how reliable are these systems that you're talking about these systems have

03:04been reliable for uh you know almost decades in 50s 60s there was no gps data they were all using this

03:09ground-based navigational radars and systems but in the current age where the aircrafts are on autopilot

03:14they use gps navigational data so the dependency has and in the case of low visibility you know

03:21the long flights gps is now a new normal it's not that you know if you and me do not get a gps signal

03:27will not be able to go to office or will not be able to navigate the way but it will be much more

03:31difficult it will be problematic you might not be able to take the best path so likewise a pilot you

03:37know especially in the in this era where there is huge passenger traffic every one minute there

03:41are five planes landing yeah you know you need species and navigation and guidance especially

03:46in cities like delhi where there is no visibility gps has become a huge dependency so if you do away

03:51if you take off the gps or pick a fake you know location data you might create confusion you might

03:58create panic it may not itself lead to some accident but this confusion and delay might lead to a

04:04catastrophe you know so you know if there is one out of thousand chances that you know the aircraft

04:08a pilot might make an error uh in the navigational data so it's a very dangerous trend to distract the

04:14pilots to you know give fake navigational data and this is life critical because see ultimately an

04:21aircraft might be on low fuel right it might have seconds of fuel left and it may be relying on gps data

04:26suddenly the navigation data is gone wrong you may not have time to switch back and cross verify it with the

04:31other navigational data so in that case you know it might become uh you know life critical but how

04:37soon can a pilot recover the aircraft once he knows that there is an incident of gps spoofing

04:44well they they have persistent navigational data available from the different sensors from

04:48ground-based navigation but gps is today these days is the primary source of navigation they can always

04:52cross verify and that and that is why they figure out that there's spoofing going on because the two

04:56different sensors are so in two different locations can you tell me what exactly the indian government

05:01and the ministry is doing in order to tackle the situation but i have no idea what they are doing

05:07i can only speculate they must be trying to figure out the source of this gps you know spoofing the

05:11source of fake signals and for that they might be looking to figure out from the way the signals are

05:16coming what is the strength and when it is happening so i'm sure now whatever they are doing it will not

05:20be in public domain and i'm definitely i would not be aware of it but i'm quite intrigued about this

05:25entire concept i mean is it so easy to have a satellite with with a greater uh you know strength

05:32to override all of these systems does it only take a satellite or there are different elements involved

05:38in it you don't need a fake satellite to do a fake you know gps signal you might actually have a fake

05:43satellite in the lower orbit or you know in the higher orbit and do a fake gps signal but you don't

05:49need that you could just plant a fake cantina with a gps spoofer and capabilities and you know

05:53know rs super and you know maybe mount it on a vehicle or put it on a building and broadcast a

05:58fake gps signal it did not come from a satellite only so is there no system in place to uh nap these

06:04people to track the location trace the location of where these gps signals are coming from

06:10well there are no clear-cut ways it is extremely difficult but there are ways and means and i'm sure

06:15government would be trying and we don't know whether the source of this pooping is consistent at one

06:19place or it is moving we don't know so government would be looking at all the possibilities and then

06:23you know also uh you know many of the aircrafts or other gps signal receivers are now using this

06:29technology of encryption and the verifying the source of signal so they know if the signal is coming

06:33they're trying to have some sort of you know credential mechanism where they are able to verify the

06:40source of signal so those technologies are yet to come and yet to be implemented all the you know

06:45critical uh sectors like aviation but till the time we are under threat and i am sure government

06:50would be doing their best to figure out the source of smoking the dgc has also said that now they

06:55need to give the details of gps spoofing within 10 minutes yeah so that they can warn other aircraft

07:01they can save time and you know once you are figuring out spoofing it just takes you know a minute

07:05to inform the atc so they are just giving it more priority so that they can warn the other aircraft

07:11do you think that this entire uh incident of gps is spoofing all of the incidents that have taken

07:17place in india can we look at it with an angle of hybrid warfare no obviously gps spoofing has always

07:23been a part integral part of cyber warfare and technology warfare these days you would have seen

07:28reports of russia jamming the gps signals to you know create problems for the uh european planes where

07:35you know european president was on board so it has been happening it did happen in the you know syria

07:40conflict so gps jamming is common uh it happens in korea very often the korean border but gpf spoofing

07:48at this scale is really to be seen and we are probably facing first of its kind you know cyber

07:53attack in terms of gps booking do you think that there has to be a better collaboration between

07:58civil aviation and military so that because this is a case of hybrid warfare in the making

08:05i'm sure that is already there and that is how they're figuring out this is going on so that those

08:09systems and mechanisms are just already anything that you want to uh tell to our viewers regarding

08:15this if we can be cautious enough to uh face this challenge in the future no i mean if you face any

08:24problem with the location data if you think that location is going wrong by kilometers in your google

08:30maps and discuss system and many other people are also facing maybe report it to cyber helpline

08:33you know information uh going to the government is always welcome

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