What Is GPS Spoofing? Sophisticated Cyberattack That Hit Major Airports Last Month

Several major Indian airports witnessed a GPS spoofing cyberattack last month, the government confirmed on Monday. According to Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, seven major airports, including Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, faced cyberattacks last month. The Minister informed the Rajya Sabha that several flights recently reported GPS spoofing in the vicinity of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The Minister confirmed that India is using a Minimum Operating Network (MON), which relies on ground-based navigation systems, to prevent such disruptions. He said that some incoming flights experienced spoofed signals while approaching runway 10 using GPS-based landing procedures at India’s busiest airport. Despite this, he said that flight operations were not affected.

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) spoofing is a cyberattack when someone tries to trick navigation systems by giving false information about a plane’s position, speed, or time. Unlike jamming, which overwhelms the GPS signal with noise, spoofing provides fake but believable data. This can mislead aircraft into thinking they are somewhere they are not. 

GPS spoofing can seriously endanger flights by causing errors in route or altitude. However, Naidu told the Parliament that these signals did not affect flight movements. This was mainly because India had already deployed conventional navigational aids. He added that similar interference reports had come from Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai airports. 

To strengthen safety, Naidu said advanced cybersecurity measures for IT networks and infrastructure were also being implemented. The Union Minister’s remarks follow after over 400 flights at Delhi’s IGIA were delayed last month due to a technical snag in the air traffic control system.

In June, the Guardian reported a GPS spoofing incident affecting a UK long-haul flight over Israel. The aircraft’s clock began running backwards and internal instruments falsely indicated it was at 1,500 feet instead of its cruising altitude of 38,000 feet. This instantly triggered a terrain avoidance system, warning of an imminent collision. However, no untoward incident took place as the pilots were familiar with spurious alerts.

The report also added that international flight experts at Ops Group recorded a 500% increase in GPS spoofing in 2024, disrupting an average of 1,500 flights daily.

In April 2024, another Guardian report stated that thousands of flights in and out of Britain were affected by suspected Russian GPS jamming since August 2023.

According to the report, more than 2,300 Ryanair flights, nearly 1,400 Wizz Air flights, 82 British Airways flights and four easyJet flights experienced the interference.