Don’t look now, but your in-car GPS could be HaXXored!
With the influx of quality inexpensive GPS units flooding the market, it is hard to justify putting off that purchase you have longed to make for so long. Popular gadget blog Engadget has turned up some troubling information that might keep that GPS fund safely stashed a while longer: an Italian security consultancy has reported that intercepting and redirecting GPS signals is child’s play to the right hackers.
Andrea Barisani, chief security engineer for Inverse Path, has claimed that those with the proper equipment could easily intercept your GPS signals; not only that, they could then send you false information to completely disorient you.
Now, we’re fairly sure the haxxor who is competent enough to do this isn’t sitting around, idly waiting for one random GPS user that can be befuddled with poor GPS directions. Imagine this, if you will: A group of competent hackers, armed with the technology to reprogram GPS signals, simultaneously informing the Friday afternoon rush hour community that the interstate is closed, and the only detour is the one lane country road?
The problem is fairly simple; GPS signals are not encrypted. Until now, why would anyone need to encrypt them? Why can’t we all just enjoy this beautiful technology to expedite our travel adventures, and find more important things to hack?
I can’t really provide you with that answer, because Andrea seems to think it is a viable threat, and he’s the authority. However, as it has not publicly surfaced as a current problem, those of you with units need not worry.
Dare I say, announcing the vulnerability to the world might not be in the best interests of GPS safety? After all, what more encouragement would a hacker need than a public statement declaring the vulnerabilities of GPS?
No doubt we will see an onslaught of security-enabled GPS units being marketed in the near future, and perhaps this one really is worth the wait. If you are all mixed up and don’t know what you’ll do without GPS until then, I recommend local news FM radio; I know, no one listens to that anymore, but seriously, they are fairly reliable when it comes to up to the minute traffic status…really.
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