Israeli air force base linked to GPS spoofing attacks

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have identified an Israeli air force base as the main source of GPS attacks that have disrupted the navigation of civilian airlines in the Middle East.

These attacks, known as spoofing, involve sending out manipulated GPS signals that cause aircraft instruments to incorrectly determine their position.

Researchers Todd Humphreys and Zach Clements said they were “very confident” that the spoofing attacks originated from Ein Shemer airfield in northern Israel. The Israeli military declined to comment on Tuesday.

The researchers used data transmitted by the spoofer and received by satellites in low Earth orbit to determine its location, then confirmed their calculations using data they collected on the ground in Israel.

Spoofing and GPS jamming have increased sharply over the past three years, particularly near war zones in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, where the military is jamming navigation signals to thwart rocket and drone attacks.

The Middle East has become a hotspot for spoofing. The University of Texas researchers did not disclose how many spoofing attacks they linked to the military base, but a separate analysis estimated that more than 50,000 flights were spoofed in the region this year.

The attacks made pilots believe they were over airports in Beirut or Cairo, even though they were not, say researchers at SkAI Data Services and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences who analyzed data from the OpenSky network.

Swiss International Air Lines says its flights over the Middle East are manipulated almost daily.

Estonia and other Baltic states also accuse Russia of jamming signals in their airspace. In April, Finnair temporarily suspended flights to an Estonian airport after two flights were rejected due to severe GPS interference.

The attacks now extend over large parts of the earth, far away from any battlefields.

Spoofing can not only cause confusion in navigation but also trigger false alarms that indicate aircraft are too close to the ground. But the attacks have not yet made flying dangerous because pilots can use alternative navigation methods.

“The loss of GPS is not going to cause planes to fall out of the sky,” said Jeremy Bennington, vice president of Spirent Communications, which conducts tests for global navigation systems. “But I also don’t want to deny that we are removing layers of security.”