GPS Spoofing of Flights Reported at Important Airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai: Centre tells RS
In a written response in the Rajya Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu indicated that the Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO) has been asked to investigate the origin of the spoofing.
Major airports across the nation, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai, have reported instances of GPS spoofing and aircraft interference, the Ministry of Civil Aviation revealed on Monday.
In a written reply to questions asked by YSRCP MP S Niranjan Reddy in the Rajya Sabha, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu revealed that GPS spoofing was recorded in the neighborhood of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in New Delhi.
“Some flights reported GPS spoofing in the neighborhood of IGIA, New Delhi, while employing GPS-based landing methods, while approaching on RWY (runway) 10. Contingency preparations were used for GPS-faked flights approaching RWY 10.”
“There were no impacts on operations of flights, on other runway ends having traditional navigational tools being operational,” stated the minister.
Spoofing and jamming of the Global Positioning System (GPS) or Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) are attempts to control a user’s navigation system by sending false signals.
According to the minister, the Wireless Monitoring Organization (WMO) has been instructed to locate the spoofing’s origin.
“The Wireless Monitoring Organization (WMO) has been asked by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to potentially locate the source of interference or spoofing.”
“During the high-level meeting, WMO was directed to put together more resources to determine the origin of spoofing based on estimated spoofing location details shared by DGCA and AAI,” Naidu wrote in his response.
WMO falls under the Department of Telecommunications.
Other major airports in the nation have been reporting GPS jamming and spoofing on a regular basis since November 2023, as required by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
“GNSS interference reports are being received from Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai airports,” stated the minister.
Last month, DGCA instructed airlines, pilots, and air traffic controllers to submit GPS spoofing instances within 10 minutes of the occurrences, citing recent incidents, such as incidents at the Delhi airport.
According to Naidu’s written response, the Minimum Operating Network (MON), which consists of conventional (ground-based) navigation and surveillance infrastructure, is maintained in compliance with international best practices.
India additionally takes part in global platforms to keep itself aware of the latest methods and technology for the timely adoption of the same.
To a query, Naidu said the global cybersecurity risks to the aviation sector come in the form of ransomware/ malware.
“To boost cyber security against worldwide threats, AAI is adopting advanced cyber security solutions for IT networks and infrastructure. These actions have been performed in compliance with the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) recommendations.”
“Continuous improvement ensures cybersecurity. As the nature and type of the danger change, new preventative measures are being applied,” he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Yogesh Naager is a content marketer who specializes in the cybersecurity and B2B space. Besides writing for the News4Hackers blogs, he also writes for brands including Craw Security, Bytecode Security, and NASSCOM.
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