Wireless Attacks On The Open Ocean

A recent study from the University of Austin was able to get a Yacht to steer off course by faking GPS signals. In order to do this a student had to make the signals they were sending to the ship stronger than those coming from the Satellites so that it would take those into account most. 

What they did was have the ship steer 3 degrees off course and essentially towards the attacker which in the real world could be pirates or a foreign government spying on communications among other things. This interesting experiment is animated in the video below that is hosted on Youtube and has generated over 80,000 views. It was produced with DR. Todd Humphreys along with his team in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas in Austin.

On a completely separate note we were able to find this Smart Buoy picture while researching the topic and found out some interesting ways that ships and scientists are collecting data and using it in real time to make decisions. Information about weather, tides, and other things are available to local boating crews and private yachts passing through the area. Read more about Smart Buoys on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website.

Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below.