Reports indicate that hackers are targeting the GPS systems of airplanes, leading to “critical navigation failures.” Over 50 recent incidents reveal cyberattacks on airplanes, including commercial jets. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a memo in September, warning of an increased “safety of flight risk to civil aviation operations.” OpsGroup, an organization of 8,000 international flight operators, disclosed this information.
The cyberattacks, known as GPS spoofing, involve manipulating the navigation system with fake coordinates.
While such attacks are not new, hackers have recently found ways to override an airplane’s Inertial Reference Systems (IRS), affecting critical position data provided by gyroscopes, accelerometers, and electronics for navigation. The surge in cyberattacks began in late August.
On October 25, a Gulfstream G650 departing from Tel Aviv encountered “full navigation failure,” deviating 225 nautical miles from its intended course, as reported. Additionally, on October 16, another flight departing from Tel Aviv faced GPS spoofing.
“The controller warned us that we are flying towards a forbidden area,” the report noted.
On that specific day, a Boeing 777 encountered GPS spoofing for approximately 30 minutes while flying over Cairo airspace. The concerning aspect of these attacks is that industry experts initially believed these systems were impervious to hacking. Now, there is uncertainty about how to safeguard against future cyberattacks of this kind.
“This immediately sounds unthinkable,” OpsGroup said.
“The IRS (Inertial Reference System) should be a stand-alone system, unable to be spoofed.
“The idea that we could lose all on-board nav capability, and have to ask [air traffic control] for our position and request a heading, makes little sense at first glance — especially for state-of-the-art aircraft with the latest avionics.
“However, multiple reports confirm that this has happened.”
OpsGroup stated:
“The industry has been slow to come to terms with the issue, leaving flight crews alone to find ways of detecting and mitigating GPS spoofing.”
Another aviation expert and former flight operations caption stated:
“Nefarious (though yet to be identified) forces are likely behind this, and the consequences could turn into an international crisis and possibly the loss of an innocent civilian aircraft in a region that is already a high-risk area near an active conflict zone.”
