SCADA, Telematics & GPS Technologies

The Mumbai terrorists used an array of commercial technologies — from Blackberries to GPS navigators to anonymous e-mail accounts — to pull off their heinous attacks.

For years, terrorists and insurgents around the world have used off-the-shelf hardware and software to stay ahead of bigger, better-funded authorities. In 2007, former U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid complained that, with their Radio Shack stockpile of communications gear, “this enemy is better networked than we are.” The strikes that killed at least 174 appears to be another example of how wired today’s “global guerrillas” can be.

As they approached Mumbai by boat, the terrorists “steered the vessel using GPS equipment,” according to the Daily Mail. A satellite phone was later found aboard.

Once the coordinated attacks began, the terrorists were on their cell phones constantly. They used BlackBerries “to monitor international reaction to the atrocities, and to check on the police response via the internet,” the Courier Mail reports.

The gunmen were able to trawl the internet for information after cable television feeds to the two luxury hotels and office block were cut by the authorities.

The men looked beyond the instant updates of the Indian media to find worldwide reaction to the events in Mumbai, and to keep abreast of the movements of the soldiers sent to stop them.

Outside of Leopold’s Cafe, “one of the gunmen seemed to be talking on a mobile phone even as he used his other hand to fire off rounds,” an eyewitness told The New York Times.

The terror group then took credit for the bloodshed with a series of e-mails to local media. They used a “remailer” service to mask their identities; earlier attacks were claimed from cyber cafes.

[Photo: AP; plugged in: CA, Giz]

With millions of GPS-based navigation devices on the road today, it is time someone considered the question: What if there’s an attack on the GPS network itself?

Researchers at Virginia Tech and Cornell University spent more than a year building equipment that can transmit fake GPS signals capable of fooling receivers.

“GPS is woven into our technology infrastructure, just like the power grid or the water system,” said Paul Kintner, electrical and computer engineering professor and director of the Cornell GPS Laboratory in a statement. “If it were attacked, there would be a serious impact.”

GPS is a U.S. government-built navigation system of more than 30 satellites circling earth twice a day in specific orbits. The satellites transmit signals to receivers on land, sea and in air. Based on the signals received from the satellites, devices are able to triangulate their exact positions on the globe. But if those satellite signals were wrong — or were spoofed — a GPS device might come up with the wrong location based on the signals it was receiving.

The researchers started by programming a briefcase-size GPS receiver used in the research of the uppermost part of the Earth’s atmosphere, known as ionospheric research, to send out fake signals. The phony receiver was placed in the proximity of a navigation device, where it anticipated the signal being transmitted from the GPS satellite. Almost instantly, the reprogrammed receiver sent out a false signal that the GPS-based navigation device took for the real thing.

The experiments to show the vulnerability of GPS receivers to spoofing could help devise methods to guard against such attacks, says Brent Ledvina, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech, and will be detailed in a research paper to be released Thursday.

“It’s almost like someone nearby is spoofing your favorite radio station by transmitting at the same frequency but higher power fooling your receiver into believing it is getting the right station,” says Ledvina.

The idea of GPS receiver spoofing has already been considered by federal authorities. In a December 2003 report, the Department of Homeland Security detailed seven countermeasures including monitoring the absolute and relative GPS signal strength, monitoring the satellite identification codes and the number of signals received and checking the time intervals between the received signals to guard against spoofs.

Still those fall short and would not have successfully fended off the signals produced by a reprogrammed receiver, said the researchers.

Instead they have suggested a few countermeasures that involve both hardware and software changes. “We have two patent applications which include a software algorithm to help make changes to how receivers react to signals,” says Ledvina.

The other patent is around the spoofer tool used, he says. “The idea is to help government and other companies use it to potentially make better receivers,” says Ledvina.

Photo: NASA

Links: HomeLandSecurity, wired

When engineers tackle a project that uses ZigBee communications they may get a surprise. Unlike point-to-point communications, ZigBee involves a network that can establish nodes, repeaters and complex mesh topologies. The proper test tools–often called “sniffers”–help engineers diagnose ZigBee-network problems that could otherwise turn into nightmares.

Microchip Technology includes the ZENA Wireless Network Analyzer with its PICDEM Z demonstration kit so engineers can see what goes on among ZigBee devices. The ZENA tool also can sniff and decode Microchip’s MiWi protocol that, like ZigBee, uses IEEE 802.15.4 radios. According to Steve Bible, an applications engineering manager at Microchip, ZENA time stamps packets and displays them in a graphical format. ”

The screen shows the destination and source addresses, the payload and the data,” explained Bible. “We add some color coding and provide data as hexadecimal values. Users also see a received signal strength indication, or RSSI–an uncalibrated relative value.”
…

“ZigBee and IEEE 802.15.4 technologies require a shift in how we analyze and manage ad-hoc wireless networks,” said Matt Perkins, VP of technology development at Awarepoint, a supplier of wireless asset-tracking systems. “An analyzer should take time-sliced snapshots of network traffic, ‘mine’ the traffic for metrics such as throughput, bottlenecks and end-to-end delays, and presents information in a concise graphical form.”

Source: Freaklabs

Automated Home reports that Apple has selected home automation technology company iControl to receive part of the $100 million in Venture Capital set aside for the iFund. The new Home Security 2.0 product from iControl will be ported and expanded to operate on the iPhone.

The new application will allow users to control their home security panels, IP cameras, sensors, and Z-Wave-based home automation devices. This includes devices such as lighting, door locks, thermostats, and much more.  Further value is added with the addition of broadband and cellular communication to central monitoring stations, thus making Home Security 2.0 a powerful contender in the market. Read more on this article

People were making ethanol at home long before there were cars. They called it moonshine. With gas prices going through the roof and everyone worried about global warming, a California company is betting people will jump at the chance to use the same technology to turn sugar into fuel for less than a buck a gallon.

E-Fuel Corporation has unveiled its EFuel 100 MicroFueler, a device about the size of a stacking washer-dryer that uses sugar, yeast and water to make 100 percent ethanol at the push of a button.

“You just open it like a washing machine and dump in your sugar, close the door and push one button,” company founder Tom Quinn told us. “A few days later, you’ve got ethanol.”

Is it really that easy? Read the rest of this article

Feeling unsecure and got no more private life. Use this little device to screw up GPS signal before it can be reached by any GPS devices, and transmit back to your stalkers.

A company base in Taiwan, Web Strategies Ltd. (WSL) feel responsible to produce this gadget in order to provide private life to whom life have always been stalked by some kind of paparazzis or maybe mafia in their everydays life. Protecting your whereabouts and movements from citizen and vehicle tracking personnel with 1933key’s Portable GPS Tracking Jammer utilizes unique and intelligent technology to interfere with GPS satellite signals and GPS receivers. You now can decide to be either on or off someone’s satellite tracking radar.

Using a standard mobile phone battery pack and battery charger, the Portable GPS Tracking Jammer is ready for mobile operations anytime. The included direct power pack allows continuous operation even when the batteries are drained.

No complicated installation or professional spy knowledge is required for operation. Sleek handheld design provides easy to carry and easy to use functions, anytime, anywhere.

Applications:

• Blocks GPS tracking, tagging, stalking and surveillance devices to protect your movement privacy.
• Prevents mobile GPS logging systems from submitting geographical positioning data to base tracking stations.
• Cautions-Not for use near GPS dependent motorized craft such as airplanes, farm equipment, ships or yachts; nor should used for vehicle theft.

Specifications:

• Jamming distance (coverage radius)
  Model: JGPS01A: Up to 40 meter diameter-20 meter radius
  Model: JGPS01B: Up to 20 meter diameter-10 meter radius
• Antenna: Internal
• Dimensions: L 139 x W 49 x H 24 mm
• Power: 4. 8v DC rechargeable battery pack or car power supply (cigarette lighter plug)