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Agencies now monitoring cases of GPS spoofing reported across country: Officials
India’s security and aviation agencies are investigating what may be a rise in GPS spoofing incidents across the country, senior officials confirmed
India’s security and aviation agencies are investigating what may be a rise in GPS spoofing incidents across the country, senior officials confirmed, adding that the probe was triggered by reports of similar incidents reported near Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport last week.
“The civil aviation ministry is studying the patterns and maintaining data of spoofing incidents in the country,” an official aware of the development said, asking not to be named.
Multiple officials confirmed that the incident in Delhi is being directly monitored by national security adviser Ajit Doval.
GPS spoofing involves sending fake satellite signals to trick a navigation system into showing the wrong position, speed or time. Unlike jamming, which floods the spectrum on which GPS satellites function, spoofing feeds aircraft false but convincing navigation data, which can cause errors in route or altitude and pose serious safety risks.
“A meeting was held by the NSA along with the civil aviation and IT ministries. All the concerned ministries are coordinating to investigate the matter,” a second official said.
“The probe also involves the National Cybersecurity Coordinator, the ministry of electronics and information technology and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team,” he added.
A senior IT ministry official said: “This kind of spoofing has happened in other countries as well. However, aviation and CERT-In officials have taken it as a serious incident and are conducting a detailed investigation of the instance at Delhi.”
Airline crew are trained to deal with GPS spoofing.
Airlines have reported cases of GPS interference and spoofing in and around Amritsar, which is a recent phenomenon, one of the people cited above said.
In November 2023, the civil aviation regulator — the Directorate General of Civil Aviation — issued a circular instructing airlines to report such interference cases. The government has since taken steps to address the issue, including issuing Notices to Airmen in areas where GPS disruptions are frequent.
Murlidhar Mohol, minister of state for civil aviation, informed parliament earlier this year that such flight disruptions have been most frequent in the border regions of Amritsar and Jammu between November 2023 and February 2024, and that a total of 465 incidents had been reported during this period.
