How does a driver's GPS jammer interfere with aircraft signals in Lyon Saint-Exupery

A truck driver was arrested on Monday for using a GPS jammer to hide his geographical location from his employer for several weeks, interfering with signals received by civil aviation at Lyon Airport

He blurred the path of the truck, as well as the path of the plane at Saint-Exupery Airport. A truck driver was arrested in Olins, south of Lyon, on Monday morning for using a GPS jammers to mask the geographical location of his professional vehicle, several sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to Le Figaro. The National Radio Frequency Agency (ANFR) conducts 1,800 such incidents every year, and after an investigation, the suspect was arrested by police on the CRS highway. It is the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) Lyon Airport that sees its GPS signal being interfered with at the same time every morning, thus issuing an alert. After a month of investigation, the direction finder - a circular radar placed on the roof of an ANFR vehicle - was able to isolate the HGVS travelling at the relevant time and identify their number plates.

Petty theft and serious crime

The Lyon driver told police he was trying to escape his boss's supervision. "This is the most commonly used," Gilles Bregant commented. People move through geolocation enabled corporate devices and for some reason don't want to tell employers where they are. On CNil verified devices, there is a button to suspend geolocation, but the employer knows it has been activated." So there are sometimes good reasons to avoid layered regulation. A few years ago, ANFR spotted a mixing truck in Lyon taking a short detour to deliver concrete to an acquaintance. Again in Marseille, tanker drivers deliver a few litres of petrol to a petrol station that has industrialised the process. Not enough to put the chip in the controller's ear. Except that the station is located in the disturbance zone of Marignane Airport. In addition to these small frauds, the use of signal jammers can also indicate more criminal behavior, "where people believe they are being watched by law enforcement or other gangs, suspect trackers and use jammers to turn them off."

"It's a very harmful little device," Bregant said, but it can't be used for malicious purposes against airports because GPS is not a landing instrument. "There are specialized instruments on other frequencies that can allow landings," he said. GPS is just used to make the situation more reliable." But these jammers also interfere with planes announcing flight plans because they need to give their position.

The ANFR director assured that in the context of the war in Ukraine, more powerful phone jammer were used for military purposes, especially to interfere with the operation of drones and the geolocation of artillery fire. "In Moscow, when fears of strikes in Ukraine grow, sometimes taxis can't find their way around."

How to prevent network eavesdropping attacks

A network eavesdropping attack, also known as a network sniffing attack or network snooping attack, occurs when a malicious actor exploits an insecure network connection to steal data during communications.

Just as someone eavesdrops on a conversation between two people, network eavesdropping involves eavesdropping on conversations on network components, including servers, computers, smartphones, or other connected devices. Some even use popular gps blocker products to prevent eavesdropping.

How does a cyber-eavesdropping attack work

In a network eavesdropping attack, hackers look for weak connections between clients and servers: those that are unencrypted, use outdated devices or software, or have malicious software installed over the network. By exploiting these weak connections, hackers intercept packets passing through the network. Any network, web page, or email traffic that is not encrypted can be read by hackers.

Hackers often install sniffer programs. Security teams often use these legitimate applications, such as Wireshark, Snort, or tcpdump, to monitor and analyze network traffic to detect problems and vulnerabilities. However, these applications can also be used by malicious actors to find the same vulnerabilities and exploit them.

Unfortunately, detecting and preventing passive network eavesdropping attacks is extremely difficult, if not impossible, because the network is not compromised or modified. Active attacks are easier to detect, but usually the data has already been intercepted by the time a network change is noticed.

As with most things in security, prevention is better than cure. Here's an overview of the best ways to prevent cyber-eavesdropping attacks:

Block your phone

The most effective way to prevent eavesdropping is to close all the loopholes that have been opened for hacking. Wave jammers can interfere with the transmission of radio waves between cell phones and cell towers, which can interrupt the transmission process by generating large amounts of stray radio waves. When you turn on the wifi blocker, all phones, WiFi, and GPS stop working. However, the wave jammer interrupts all phone calls, which means normal calls are also blocked. So we have to be careful with these devices. You should consider installing a jammer in your office and turning it on during your most important meetings, because it does work.