GPS signals have created tremendous advancements in the public safety realm. Beyond providing location positioning and navigation (and the fastest route to an emergency), it provides the timing used in many aspects of our day-to-day lives, including ensuring critical transmission signals don't get dropped, keeping the power grid running, ensuring emergency calls go through and are time stamped. What is less widely known are the national security implications and the impact on public safety as GPS signals are vulnerable – they can be spoofed, jammed, and hacked – and are now classified as cybersecurity risks by the Department of Homeland Security. Further, GPS signals are also subject to natural interferences from solar weather (such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections).

There are numerous documented cases - some of which we will introduce in this session - of how malicious, accidental, or natural disruption to GPS timing signals and the subsequent impact on data synchronization has resulted in severe loss of services and significant impact on public safety. The most recent example occurred in June 2023, when sophisticated equipment used by a man blocked the communications signals used by the 57 agencies in Mobile County, Alabama. Other examples include the disruption of New York City traffic lights and police license plate scanning equipment due to GPS timing signal issues, and the significant GPS interference experienced around the Dallas Fort Worth and Denver airports leading to air traffic and public safety concerns in the just the last year.

U.S. federal and state governments are concerned about the threat of GPS as a single point of failure and are actively seeking solutions to build PNT resilience and redundancy. For instance, Executive Order 13905 (Strengthen National Resilience Through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services) issued in February of 2020, states that "It is the policy of the United States to ensure that disruption or manipulation of PNT services does not undermine the reliable and efficient functioning of its critical infrastructure." The European Union's Joint Research Centre also published its report (recently - March 2023) assessing alternative technologies for deployment in the EU, which also highlights the importance for critical infrastructure and public safety around the need for resilient systems.

Takeaway

1. The risks of GPS vulnerabilities

2. U.S. federal and state activities to build resilience

3. Public Safety needs for resilient PNT systems