Knowing exactly where you’re sailing and where to sail next is the most important part of a vessel’s navigation which can be accomplished by the use of GPS. Yet, what happens when your GPS gets spoofed? GPS spoofing, often leading to GPS outages, causes major disruptions to the shipping industry impacting safe navigation, leading to paralyzed shipping lanes, collisions and untraceable attacks.

The US order, according to Reuters, states that federal agencies should implement a plant to test infrastructure systems within one year, commenting that “disruption or manipulation of these services has the potential to adversely affect the national and economic security of the United States.”

Following the agreement, the US Transportation Department will recommend a backup GPS system or systems by the end of the year, while the testing of 11 technologies in Massachusetts and Virginia will be completed by May.

Moreover, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) estimated in one study that “a hypothetical disruption to GPS could result in $30 day period.”

Therefore, it is of great importance to test US’s GPS infrastructure. The Commerce Department is conducting its independent source of precision time available within 180 days to both the public and private sector to assist critical infrastructure owners and operators.