While federal law prohibits the use of radar signal jammers throughout the United States, laser jammers are legal in most states, but the following states have explicitly banned their use: California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C.

Penalties vary by state. In Texas, for example, the maximum fine is $500, while in Utah violators can face up to 90 days in prison and a $750 fine.

Military Eliminates Iraqi GPS Jammers

WASHINGTON – The president spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday about the sale of sensitive military equipment to Iraq, but the discussion may have been moot as military officials said they had destroyed six GPS jammers.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr. told a news conference Tuesday at U.S. Central Command at Camp Sariyah, Qatar, that six GPS jammers “supplied by other countries” have been deactivated by U.S. forces.

We took out a GPS jammer with a GPS weapon

Renuarte did not specify that the cellphone jammers were part of a shipment of supplies from Russian companies to Iraq, but the U.S. has repeatedly expressed concern that Russia is allowing the supplies to slip through Iraq in violation of decade-long U.N. sanctions.

In a call to Putin on Monday morning, White House spokesman Ali Ali expressed concern over reports that Russians were actually on the ground in Iraq teaching Iraqi troops how to use prohibited hardware such as night-vision goggles, GPS jammers and anti-tank missiles. Fleischer said.

GPS jammers in particular slowed the bombing of Baghdad as the military took extra care not to hit civilian targets

Iraq may have acquired as many as 400 electronic “jammers” that could divert U.S. smart bombs from their intended course if the U.S. went to war.

The Pentagon has “genuine concern at the highest levels” that Baghdad may have purchased the wifi jammers from a Russian company.

The types of bombs that can be redirected by these jammers are called “J-Dams” — “Joint Direct Attack Munitions” guided by global satellites. These are military GPS-guided bombs.They cost around $21,000 each and have a maximum range of 15 miles. The J-Dams debuted in Kosovo in 1999.

The Air Force is now trying to test similar jammers to see if those used by enemies work against American weapons

Federal officials say Iranian forces are actively using GPS jammers and impersonating U.S. or allied warships to lure merchant ships through Iranian waters and then seize them.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration issued a warning that Iran was using “GPS jamming, bridge-to-bridge communications spoofing, and/or other communications jamming with little warning.”

“In at least two of these incidents, the ships reported GPS jamming,” the statement read. “The ships also reported spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be U.S. or coalition warships.”

A small surveillance drone flew over the Austin stadium, diligently following a series of GPS waypoints programmed into its flight computer. On the face of it, the mission was routine.

Suddenly, the drone veered sharply off course, deviating from its intended flight path and hurtling east. After a few minutes, when it was clear that something was seriously wrong, the drone made a sharp right turn and headed south. Then, as if some ghost had ordered the drone to self-destruct, it hurtled toward the ground. Just a few feet from some kind of disaster, a safety pilot with a radio control device saved the drone from crashing into the scene.

On the sidelines, there were smiles all around about the near-disaster. Professor Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas at Austin’s Radionavigation Laboratory have just completed a successful experiment: closing a hole in the government’s plan to open U.S. airspace to thousands of drones.

They can be turned into weapons

Spoofing the GPS receiver on a drone is just another way to hijack a plane

In other words, with the right equipment, anyone can take control of a GPS-guided drone and make it do whatever they want.

Spoofing is a relatively new problem in GPS navigation. So far, the main problem has been GPS jammer device, which are easily available via the Internet and used by people to hide illegal use of GPS-tracked company vans, for example. Iran is also believed to have shot down a US spy drone in December by jamming drone its GPS, forcing it into automatic landing mode after losing direction.

“Tricking the GPS receiver on a drone is just another way to hijack a plane.” Todd Humphreys, a researcher at the University of Texas Radio Navigation Laboratory

Cell phone jammer can cause problems by disrupting GPS signals, while spoofers are a huge leap forward in technology. They can actually manipulate navigation computers with false information that looks real. He used his device – what Humphreys says is the most advanced spoofer ever built (which costs just $1,000) – to infiltrate the drone’s GPS system and send out a signal more powerful than those coming from satellites high in Earth’s orbit. .

Initially, his signal matched that of the GPS, so the drone thought there was nothing wrong. That’s when he strikes – sending his commands to an onboard computer to get the drone to follow his lead.

Mr Humphreys said the impact was severe. “Within one to three years, the airspace will have 20,000 drones,” he told Fox News. “Every one of them could be a potential missile aimed at us.”

Drones have been widely used in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, but so far GPS-guided drones have been limited to battlefield or southern border patrols and have not been allowed to fly widely in U.S. airspace.

Under pressure from the Pentagon and drone manufacturers, Congress ordered the FAA to write rules allowing government and commercial use of drones on U.S. soil by 2015. The plan could eventually see police drones spying on U.S. cities, drones monitoring power company transmission lines, or GPS-guided freighter-sized drones delivering packages across the country without a driver. FedEx founder Fred Smith said he hopes to add drones to his fleet soon.

The new rules have raised privacy concerns about a “surveillance society” where drones tirelessly monitor our every move 24/7. But Humphreys’ experiment puts a whole new spin on anxieties about drones.

“What if you could shoot down one of these drones delivering a FedEx package and use it as your missile?” It’s the same mentality as the 9-11 attackers.”

This is something the government is acutely aware of. In the deserted desert of the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, officials from the FAA and Department of Homeland Security watched Humphrey’s team constantly take control of a drone from a remote mountaintop. The results were as dramatic as the test at UT Stadium a few days earlier.

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to identify and mitigate gps jamming with its new Patriot Watch and Patriot Shield programs, but the effort is poorly funded, still in its infancy, and mostly aimed at finding people using jammers rather than spoofers.

The potential consequences of GPS spoofing are simply chilling. Humphries warned that terrorist groups could match his technology and wreak havoc in crowded U.S. airspace.

“I’m afraid they’re going to crash into other planes.” “I’m worried they’re going to crash into buildings. We could have a collision in the air and there could be casualties, so we want to prevent that from happening and fix it.”

Unlike military drones, which use encrypted GPS systems, most drones flying over the United States will rely on civilian GPS, which is not encrypted and can be easily infiltrated. Humphreys warned that the government needed to address the loophole before allowing drones widespread access to U.S. airspace.

“It just shows the mindset that we had after 9-11, when we reinforced the cockpit doors to prevent people from hijacking airplanes – well, in terms of the navigation systems of these drones, we need to adopt that mindset.”

The EMP generator generates an electromagnetic pulse to disrupt electronics

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Wisconsin recently seized a slot jammer device while inspecting a shipment from Hong Kong.

CBP officers made the discovery at the Milwaukee port of entry on Feb. 4, CBP said in a press release.

Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) devices are banned by the Federal Communications Commission and are used to “interfere” with the inner workings of slot machines.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an EMP generator generates an electromagnetic pulse that can disrupt electronic devices at a range of about one meter. These devices typically send an electric current through a magnetic field via a magnetic copper wire.

Border Patrol agents in Arizona have shot dead Mexican migrants at the US border

CBP said the shipment was a car adapter from an electronics supplier in Hong Kong and was headed to a home in Mossini, about 175 miles northwest of Milwaukee.

“There are a variety of ways these tools can be used,” LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, Chicago’s director of field operations, said in a statement. “Federal law prohibits such cellphone jammer because they can be used to interfere with radio communications, cellular phones, GPS and other communications devices.”

CBP officers at the Port of Milwaukee Express Consignment Operations facility examined the shipment and sent it to the Mechanical Engineering Division at FBI Headquarters for further analysis.

Some people fear that cell phone jammers could disrupt phone service for law-abiding people close to prisons. However, modern jamming technology can be narrowly targeted to minimize disruption to people outside of prison walls.

It’s time to fix the federal regulations that prohibit jamming device technology and give prisons the tools they need to fight contraband.

Installing jammers in prisons would turn inmates’ cell phones into paperweights, disrupting their criminal networks and drying up a major source of contraband.

Risks of GPS Dependence

Overreliance on GPS signals is rampant in day-to-day life from data networks, financial systems, health networks, rail, road, aviation and marine transport, to shipping and agriculture. Military platforms commonly use GPS to find their position, navigate and execute missions.

With different systems sharing GPS dependency, a loss of signal could cause the simultaneous failure of many things people rely on daily.

The European Commission estimated that six to seven percent of its countries’ GDP, representing a whopping $1 trillion, is already dependent on satellite radio navigation in Europe alone.

BAE and Lockheed are not alone in their efforts to develop better, more robust systems. Other countries have developed their systems, including Russia’s GLONASS, the European Union’s Galileo system, and China’s COMPASS.

Another related issue is the use of GPS. The FAA has been working to upgrade aging radar-based systems with GPS networks for air traffic control and positioning. It should improve safety and pilot awareness. But GPS signals are notoriously vulnerable to disruption: They’re relatively weak to begin with, using just 25 watts to send signals from satellites that are roughly 12,500 miles above the Earth. It’s so easy to block such signals that GPS jammers are sold online for $30.

Simply allocating specific radio spectrum to particular devices does not entirely solve the problem either. A recent example is LightSquared, a company that wants to build a network of 40,000 towers across the country to deliver broadband Internet access using the 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) wireless data protocols. The company wants to use a frequency spectrum near the existing GPS L1 band. (Consumer GPS devices typically rely on L1 signals, in the 1575.42 MHz wavelength.)

Protecting Your Privacy: A Guide to Avoiding Drone Surveillance

It’s hard to know who owns a drone; some cars have a visible registration number, usually in case the owner forgets.

I watch the drones in the sky with my eyes

I was swimming in the backyard pool one day when I heard a familiar hum. Sure enough, a drone was circling overhead, which disappeared shortly after I flicked it away with my hands. This is where my idea for writing this article came from.

The legality of drone surveillance varies by country and state, but if a drone is flying over your private property and recording you without your consent, call the police. This is an invasion of your privacy.

It’s hard to know who owns a drone. In my case, it flew out of sight within seconds. If I had my iPhone within arm’s reach, I’d snap a photo of the drone. Some drones have a visible registration number, usually to prevent the owner from forgetting it.

Things You Should Never Do to Drones

There are some effective and perfectly legal ways to avoid surveillance. There are also ways that are illegal for ordinary citizens.

The FAA legally protects drones from:

Shooting: Shooting into the sky is dangerous and illegal. Just don’t do it.

Physical Interference: This includes lasers and other objects.

Disable or otherwise tamper: Using blockers and hacking is a crime.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here’s what you can do.

Use your surroundings as cover

Own a drone or know someone who has one? I bet you’ve been in a situation where someone threw something at it. This is not the right way to avoid drones.

You should take a more reactive approach. In bad weather — heavy rain, fog, and high winds — it can be difficult for drones to fly or get great footage. To rate you.

When the weather is nice and you see drones buzzing overhead, find a place where they are less likely to spot you. Trees, alcoves, awnings, and tunnels are all great places to hide when drones pass by.

The Jalisco, Mexico-based CJNG, led by drug lord Nemesio Osegra Cervantes, wears cell phone jammer on its uniform and “employs Middle Eastern terror tactics” by targeting crowds with drones .

They are using drones “to drop bombs on rival cartels and the Mexican Armed Forces.”

“They use cell phone wifi jammers to stop these attacks. They use them to stop people from calling for help or calling family when they’re kidnapped. They also use them to conduct very sophisticated maneuvers on the battlefield, where they can cover up,” Logan said. “They can cover their lines, they can cover their attacks, they can cover their exits — the way they exit the situation. It takes a lot of training and it’s a real threat.”