We know that our modern technology is not as foolproof and reliable as we expect it to be when we really need it. We’ve seen it fail causing train crashes, plane crashes, and even luxury cruise ships aground. We have seen our space rockets disappear and have even been told that our electric cars, laptops and other equipment could burst into flames at any moment. We trust all of our technology, but only up to a point. Yeah, and maybe that’s smart, let’s take GPS for example, yeah, let’s talk, okay?
There was a disturbing article in the International Business Times titled; “GPS Terrorism: Hackers Could Exploit Location Technology To Hijack Ships, Airplanes” by Ryan W Neil, published Jul 29, 2013. In this article, we find a computer science grad student quite impressed with himself for hacking a yacht of luxury. He took over his GPS navigation system and was therefore able to command the yacht to go wherever he wanted. That’s pretty cool to brag about considering a hacking convention is coming up, but it also points to the dark side, black hatter hackers, and even terrorism.
If hackers are able to hijack the GPS system of rogue vessels, especially those of large size and shape, such as cruise ships, container ships, large tankers, or various cargo ships, they can cause great damage. Not to mention a small ecological environmental disaster. A sunken ship at the entrance to a port or maritime choke point could cause intense logistical problems. Think of the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, or even the Houston Canal. What would happen if someone hacked a luxury yacht and tried to ram a military ship?
No, the damage caused would not be as bad as you might think because the military ship is very strong. Would the captain of the military ship order to open fire if he was going to be rammed by a private ship? He or she would have every right to do it, but would they dare? What if there were notorious friends and family on that ship?
If all luxury yachts everywhere have similar GPS systems, and many of them do, then they are all in jeopardy now. Often these special GPS systems are found on cargo ships so that they can pass each other at night without colliding with each other, or navigate very closely through maritime bottlenecks without risk of collision.
In fact, this would be a terrorist’s dream, right? Wouldn’t it be better if this grad student hadn’t alerted the media, or told all of his friends to brag? Wouldn’t it have been better if he hadn’t done it at all, or if he had done it only in conjunction with a GPS company he was working with to help them improve his system? Some people use very poor judgment, unfortunately all of us will have to pay for it one day. The IT guy should have done this differently. What happened is unacceptable. Please consider all this and think about it.