GPS Jamming and Spoofing – Countermeasures for Safety and Security

This paper aims to clarify the legal status of Global Positioning System (GPS) jamming and spoofing, which have a dichotomous nature of countermeasures and cyber-attacks. GPS is an indispensable tool to enable ships, aircraft, and weapons to navigate to a predetermined destination. The jamming and spoofing of these signals apparently hinder safe navigation through Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs). At the same time, jamming has been positively employed to prevent the triggering of explosives and to conceal communications between terrorists during critical operations. In light of these positive uses of jamming, international legal structures have not been established to prohibit jamming and spoofing. In order to find essential factors to help legalise or criminalise jamming, this research analyses cases of GPS jamming. Both Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel and the Black Sea have often been disrupted by intentional interference with GPS, such as jamming and spoofing.