Ship Tracking Hack Makes Tankers Vanish from View
A system used to track shipping vessels worldwide has been shown to be easily hijacked. Researchers found that it is possible to cause fake vessels to appear, real ones to disappear, and to issue false emergency alerts using cheap radio equipment.
Researchers with the computer security company Trend Micro discovered the problem, which stems from a lack of security controls in a technology known as Automatic Identification System, or AIS, used by an estimated 400,000 ships worldwide. Ships using the system transmit a radio signal with their location and some other details, so that other vessels and port authorities can view a map with all nearby craft shown in real time. International Maritime Organization rules make AIS mandatory on passenger vessels and on cargo ships over a certain size. Lighthouses, buoys, and other marine fixtures also transmit their location using the system.
“We were really able to compromise this system from the root level,” says Kyle Wilhoit, a researcher with Trend Micro’s Future Threat Research team. By purchasing a 700-euro piece of AIS equipment and connecting it to a computer in the vicinity of a port, the researchers could intercept signals from nearby craft and send out modified versions to make it appear to other AIS users that a vessel was somewhere it was not.
