GPS Weakness Could Sink Wireless

At the recent Mobile Network Security Strategies conference in New York City, a timing expert from the National Institute of Standards expressed his concerns about the security and reliability of wireless networks pointing out their dependence on GPS and the ease with which the GPS signals can be jammed.

Dr. Marc Weiss of the Time and Frequency division of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) said that wireless networks increasingly require pinpoint accurate timing to synchronize transmissions between basestations and deliver faster connectivity, and they rely on global positioning system (GPS) signals from satellites to deliver that data.

"Most industries don't even know how dependent they are on GPS," Weiss said at the conference. "The problem is it's vulnerable - the signals are extremely weak."

Weiss said that only a picowatt is necessary at the antenna to block GPS signals in the vicinity. "I've heard of garage door openers blocking GPS," he said. This means that a number of unintentional and malicious jamming possibilities could interfere with GPS and thereby affect transmissions over wireless networks.

Read more -here-

• Google: Passkey authentications top 1 billion across 400 million accounts
• FTC fines Razer for misrepresenting COVID masks as N95s
• FCC fines Verizon, AT&T other major carriers nearly $200 million for sharing customer data
• Federal regulators accuse Amazon executives of deleting messages
• FCC restores net neutrality rules
• US moves to force ByteDance to sell TikTok