TomTom GPS Review

Satelite navigation systems are at risk from criminals, terrorists or even just bored teenagers, with the potential to cause major incidents from maritime disasters to chaos in financial markets, leading experts warned on Wednesday.

From maps on car dashboards and mobile phones, to road tolls, aviation and marine navigation systems and even financial exchanges, much of modern life relies on Global Navigation Satelite Systems (GNSS) that use satelite signals to find a location or keep exact time.

The familiar Global Positioning System (GPS) set up by the U.S. government, and GLONASS, a similar Russian system, were both built for military purposes but are now available to anyone with a device that can receive a signal. The European Union, China and India are setting up similar systems.

Experts are worried about havoc that could be caused if GNSS signals were illegally jammed, said Bob Cockshott, a director at Britain’s ICT Knowledge Transfer Network – an initiative funded by the UK’s national innovation agency – which is hosting a conference in London on Wednesday.

The problem was illustrated in 2009 when navigation systems at Newark Airport in the United States began suffering daily breakdowns brought about by a truck driver with just a cheap, low-powered jammer in his vehicle going by on a nearby road.

“We have moved on from a potentially threatening situation to a real danger that we must address now,” Cockshott said.

JAMMING INCIDENTS

Widely available on the internet, jammers are not illegal to own but are illegal to use. Just how widespread they are is unclear but research to be unveiled at the London conference will reveal monitors at one location in Britain recorded 60 individual jamming incidents over six months.

Criminals have also embraced the technology, Cockshott said, with cases where thieves had hijacked vans carrying high value goods after jamming their GPS and cellphone systems.

“Certainly toughening the law to make it illegal to possess one is certainly a step that can be taken. But before that, we need to know just how many of them there are and how widespread the problem is,” he told Reuters.

Some devices confiscated by police possessed “monstrous” transmission

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Article Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/46473256/GPS_attacks_risk_maritime_disaster_trading_chaos

The future of military and civilian GPS technology is being assembled in a space where Atlas V rocket components where once assembled at Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

“GPS has really changed the world,” Air Force Col. Bernard Gruber told a gathering of VIPs and employees today at the grand opening of the next-generation GPS III processing facility.

The Global Positioning System is a satellite radio-positioning system that provides precise navigation and timing information to military and civilian users.

Gruber and other speakers at Lockheed’s Waterton Canyon facility spoke of how GPS impacts how the military fights and touches everyday lives in banking, farming, surveying, mining, transportation, keeping track of time and using devices such as cellphones and iPads.

Lockheed is working on the first GPS III satellite in a 40,000 -square-foot high bay that can accommodate the processing of up to four satellites at once with costs trimmed through an assembly-line efficiency.

Lockheed has a $1.5 billion Air Force contract to build and test the GPS III prototype and the first two satellites. In January, Lockheed received a $238 million contract to build the third and fourth GPS III satellites for the Air Force.

Over two decades, Lockheed could produce 32 of the satellites which will offer greater accuracy and timing than the current constellation of GPS II satellites.

Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com

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Article Source: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_20015258?source=rss

The GPS device discovered under Ferrill’s truck was sold by a U.S. company. (CBC)The CBC Community had a lot to say about the story of man who found a hidden tracking device on his vehicle.

Ben Ferrill of Warsaw, Ont., told CBC’s Go Public that he’s angry and frightened after discovering that someone hid a GPS tracking device under his vehicle, presumably to secretly monitor his movements.

Community members posted more than 570 comments on the story by mid-afternoon Tuesday. The vast majority of readers were outraged by the story. Many wondered if Ferrill’s former employer, Holiday Ford Lincoln, had a hand in placing the device.

• “Police should get a warrant to check if the dealership’s financials to see if there is a private investigator on the recent payroll or to see if they purchased a recent unit from Kore [the Canadian company that provides the wireless connection]” – VanMan
• “Agreed. I would suggest that finding a GPS stuck to the bottom of your vehicle constitutes reasonable and probable grounds that you are being harassed and a warrant can be issued to the police so they can follow this up.” – 1wabbit1
• “Given the ongoing dispute with his employer and the injury factor, a private investigator may very well have been hired to conduct surveillance in hopes of videotaping him carrying out activities contrary to what his injuries should allow. The old ‘sit and wait outside the home for signs of movement’ has been replaced by a black box.” – aL Pine aL

Some defended the use of a tracking device, while others suggested the device might have been placed on the truck before his dispute with Holiday Ford.

• “Does not the dealership have a right to investigate claims against them? It may be shady but is there a law that has been broken, besides a vague mischief charge?” – advocate4devil
• “And why does Holiday Ford care about where he goes?” – Rgreene
• “There’s also the possibility that it got put on the wrong vehicle in a truck stop parking lot. There are transport companies that, if they suspect a driver

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  Article Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/02/community-reaction-to-secret-gps-found-by-ontario-man.html