GPS Spoofing in India: Expert Jiten Jain Warns of Fake Signals Hijacking Plane Routes

Cybersecurity expert Jiten Jain reveals how GPS spoofing at major Indian airports like Delhi overrides real satellite signals with stronger fakes from ground devices, tricking aircraft into wrong locations and timings—potentially causing grid collapses or flight chaos. Pilots switch to reliable ground-based backups like ILS radars, proven since the 1950s, but heavy GPS reliance in low-visibility ops creates confusion, delays, and life-critical risks during final approaches or low-fuel scenarios.

#InFocus #GPSSpoofing #IndiaAirports #CyberAttack #JitenJain #AviationSecurity #FakeGPSSignals #HybridWarfare #DGCA #DelhiAirport #CybersecurityIndia #FlightSafety #AsiaNetNews #India

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Transcript

00:00joining me today is a leading voice in the cyber security space in india mr jitain jain first of

00:16all thank you so much mr jain for speaking with asianet news on the incidents of gps spoofing

00:23which took place in india at some of the major airports thanks enough for having me mr jain i

00:28want to start with you telling our viewers in a very simple language because we generally hear

00:34about gps jamming but talk to me about what is gps spoofing so that they can understand how dangerous

00:41the situation can get essentially you know to start with for ordinary people to understand

00:47gps is basically a constellation of satellites which using the you know atomic clock on board

00:54satellites the navigational data and the ongoing sensors tell you the exact location

00:58of your mobile device or the receiver like you know when you're driving you try and use google maps

01:04it does get assisted gps location where satellite is guiding your exact location where do you want to

01:09go so it can help you do three things a it can give you the exact location it can give you navigation

01:14data it can give you the exact time because all these gps gps satellites have got atomic clocks on

01:20board so it can tell you the exact time uh you know which is like perfect to the nanoseconds and

01:25uh so now uh what so gps jamming is where somebody jams a signal you are not able to know where you are

01:33you are not able to use the gps data you are not able to receive the signal uh when it comes to spoofing

01:38you are not jamming the signal but you are in a way overriding the signal with a you know bigger strength

01:43and the fake data so you are basically broadcasting a signal from a fake gps device uh mimicking a

01:50satellite uh with a bigger strength than the fake data so the receiver uh you know straight into

01:55believing that this uh you know more uh this new signal with a better strength is the actual gps

02:01satellite signal when you get hooked on to that fake gps signal you get wrong locations which in turn

02:07might lead you to the wrong navigational data it might give you the wrong time so if you are able to

02:12broadcast a fake gps signal you can make a power grid collapse because you can give it the fake

02:16time stamping data you can give wrong navigational data to vehicles aircraft to many other people

02:22so once you have the wrong location obviously the navigation data will also be wrong now if suppose

02:26though usually you know in aircraft if the gps data is not working off it is wrong or pilot is in

02:31some sort of doubt they can always cross verify or switch over to the ground-based navigation where

02:35they have got integrated landing system radars ground-based uh navigational radars so they can they

02:40have those backup navigation options i was coming to that uh mr jen if i can interrupt you here

02:45for example when a pilot is flying a plane and suddenly he gets to know that there is a there

02:51is an incident of gps spoofing and then he tries to switch to the other layers of redundancy or should

02:57i say non-gps backups how reliable are these systems that you're talking about these systems have been

03:04reliable for uh you know almost decades in 50s 60s there was no gps data they were all using this

03:09ground-based navigational radars and systems but in the current age where the aircrafts are on autopilot

03:14uh they use gps navigational data so the dependency has and in the case of low visibility you know

03:21the long flights gps is now a new normal it's not that you know if you and me do not get a gps signal

03:27will not be able to go to office or will not be able to navigate the way but it will be much more

03:31difficult it will be problematic you might not be able to take the best path so likewise a pilot you

03:37know especially in the in this era where there is huge passenger traffic every one minute there are

03:41pipelines landing yeah you know you need species and navigation and guidance especially in cities

03:47like delhi where there is no visibility gps has become a huge dependency so if you do away if you

03:52take off the gps or pick a fake you know location data you might create confusion you might create panic

03:58it may not itself lead to some accident but this confusion and delay might lead to a catastrophe you

04:05know so you know if there is one out of thousand chances that you know the aircraft a pilot might

04:09make an error uh in the navigational data so it's a very dangerous trend to distract the pilots to you

04:15know give fake navigational data and this is life critical because see ultimately an aircraft might be

04:21on low fuel right it might have seconds of fuel left and it may be relying on gps data suddenly the

04:27navigation data is gone now you may not have time to switch back and cross verify it with the other

04:31navigational data so in that case you know it might become uh you know life critical but how soon can

04:38a pilot recover the aircraft once he knows that there is an incident of gps spoofing

04:43no they they have persistent navigational data available from the different sensors from ground

04:48with navigation but gps is today these days is the primary source of navigation they can always

04:52cross verify and that and that is why they figure out that there's spoofing going on because

04:56the two different sensors are so in two different locations can you tell me what exactly the indian

05:01government and the ministry is doing in order to tackle the situation but i have no idea what

05:06they are doing i can only speculate they must be trying to figure out the source of this gps

05:10you know spoofing the source of fake signals and for that they might be looking to figure out from the

05:16way the signals are coming what is the strength and when it is happening so i'm sure now whatever

05:20they are doing it will not be in public domain and i'm definitely i would not be aware of it

05:23but i'm quite intrigued about this entire concept i mean is it so easy to have a satellite with

05:29with a greater uh you know strength to override all of these systems does it only take a satellite

05:36or there are different elements involved in it no you don't need a fake satellite to do a fake

05:41you know gps signal you might actually have a fake satellite in the low earth orbit or you know

05:45in the higher orbit and do a fake gps signal but you don't need that you could just plant a fake

05:51cantina with a gps spoofer and capabilities and you know rs spoofer and you know maybe mount it on

05:55a vehicle or put it on a building and broadcast a fake gps signal it did not come from a satellite

05:59only so is there no system in place to uh nap these people to track the location trace the location of

06:07where these gps signals are coming from oh there are no clear-cut ways it is extremely difficult but

06:13there are ways and means and i'm sure government would be trying and we don't know whether the source of

06:18this pooping is consistent at one place or it is moving we don't know so government would be looking

06:22at all the possibilities and then you know also uh you know many of the aircrafts or other gps signal

06:27receivers are now using this technology of encryption and the verifying the source of signal so they know

06:33if the signal is coming they're trying to have some sort of you know credential mechanism where they are

06:39able to verify the source of signal so those technologies are yet to come and yet to be implemented

06:44all the you know critical uh sectors like aviation but till the time we are under threat and i am sure

06:49government would be doing their best to figure out the source of spoofing the dgc has also said that

06:54now they need to give the details of gps spoofing within 10 minutes yeah so that they can warn other

07:01aircraft they can save time and you know once you are figuring out spoofing it just takes you know a

07:05minute to inform the atc so they are just giving it more priority so that they can warn the other aircraft

07:11do you think that this entire uh incident of gps is spoofing all of the incidents that have taken

07:17place in india can we look at it with an angle of hybrid warfare no obviously gps spoofing has

07:23always been a part integral part of cyber warfare and technology warfare these days you would have

07:27seen reports of russia jamming the gps signals to you know create problems for the uh european planes

07:34where you know european president was on board so it has been happening it did happen in the you know

07:40syria conflict so gps jamming is common uh it happens in korea very often the korean border but

07:47gpf spoofing at this scale is rarely to be seen and we are probably facing first of its kind

07:53you know cyber attack in terms of gps booking do you think that there has to be a better

07:57collaboration between civil aviation and military so that because this is a case of hybrid warfare in

08:03the making i'm sure that is already there and that is how they're figuring out this is going on so

08:08that those systems and mechanisms exist already anything that you want to uh tell to our viewers

08:15regarding this if we can be cautious enough to uh face this challenge in the future no i mean

08:23if you face any problem with the location data if you think that location is going wrong by kilometers

08:29in your google maps and discuss system and many other people are also facing maybe report it to cyber

08:33helpline you know information uh going to the government is always welcome

08:46you

GPS Spoofing in India: Expert Jiten Jain Warns of Fake Signals Hijacking Plane Routes

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