Legal and Ethical Implications of GPS Vulnerabilities

1
Legal and Ethical Implications of GPS
Vulnerabilities
The Second International Conference on Legal,
Security and Privacy issues in IT (LSPI) 2007,
December 5-7, 2007, Beijing, China
Muhammad Usman Iqbal Samsung Lim The University
of New South Wales
School of Surveying Spatial Information
Systems The University of New South Wales,
Australia
2
What is GPS (GNSS)

• A 24 X 7 Radio-navigation System
• Currently 31 satellites (requires 24 for the
  constellation to function) in Space Segment
• User requires visibility to at-least 4 satellites
  for PVT.
• Primarily a military navigation system !!

3
Info-mobility and GNSS
4
GPS Vulnerabilities
Volpes Report
Unintentional Interference
Intentional Interference
Ionosphere
RF Interference
Jamming
Spoofing
Meaconing
5
Intentionally Introduced
Spoofing
Editable Log
Insecure Storage
6
Legal and Ethical Scenarios

• Surveillance
• LEA (Law Enforcement Agencies)
• Curious/Suspicious Spouses
• Monitoring of ex-offenders
• Financial Circumstances
• Congestion Charging
• GPS-based Insurance
• Speeding Offences
• Workplace
• Tracking of Goods
• Resource Management

7
Location data as evidence

• Fundamentally accepted generally valid!!!
• United States vs. Knotts
• Beeper attached to chloroform container
• No warrant used when conducting surveillance
• Augmentation to sensory faculties
• United States vs. Garcia
• Ex-offenders vehicle tracked
• Led to filing of charges
• Again, no warrant obtained

8
Location data

• Tracking by curious spouse
• Surreptitiously installed
• This evidence was used by LEA
• Charges were filed
• Is there a possibility to frame the person?
• Controlled rehabilitation
• Ex-offenders
• Overcrowded prisons
• Would they want to cheat ubiquitous surveillance?

9
GNSS-based Road Charging
Would financial incentives motivate people to
explore these vulnerabilities?
10
GPS evidence for Speeding Offences

• Sets a legal precedent of GPS admissibility in
  NSW courts
• Led to charges being dropped and fines overturned
• Cant GPS logs be edited?

11
Work-related Location Surveillance
Tracking and real-time job assignment (e.g.
taxis) But is it OK to track them without their
knowledge Would it motivate employees to lie?
12
Experiment Prove GPS wrong
13
Editing GPS Log
14
Edited Output
15
Edit Data on GPSs Flash Memory
16
Spoof Attack
GPS Reradiator
GPS Simulator
17
Attack Summary
18
Concluding Remarks

• GPS is a radio-navigation system and has many
  vulnerabilities
• Reviewed legal and commercial scenarios
• Judicial reasoning assumes that GPS technology is
  reliable
• Demonstrated that there is over-reliance on GPS
• Requires a policy shift

19
Acknowledgement

• This work is supported by Omnilink Pty Ltd.

20
Thank you for your time!

• Questions?