Global Airspace Radar recently spoke with Major General Friedrich Teichmann, Director of the Geo Space Service Command of the Austrian Armed Forces, and Director of Communications and Information Systems (CIS) and the Cyber Command of the Austrian Armed Forces to better understand the current situation we are facing regarding the potential for GNSS interference.
What is your organisation responsible for?
The build-up of space services within the Austrian Military but also IT, cyber, geospatial, and navigation warfare (satellite navigation, GPS, Galileo = position, navigation, timing (PNT) topics. Space services specifically incorporates satellite communications, satellite navigation, and earth observation into the system. The modern military needs these services to effectively complete day-to-day operations.
How has the cybersecurity landscape evolved over the last few years?
The main thing that has changed is speed regarding both– the threat and threat response. The co-called “bad actors” drive the speed. If they go faster, we need to go faster; if they slow down, we could also slow down. The goal is to be at least as fast as them, to keep up with them.
Major General Teichmann provided a real-life example as to how these skillsets are evolving, “My daughter teaches young students. Recently she shared a computer program with me which was related to this topic. It was made by one of her students. I was impressed and ready to hire him; then she informed me that her student was only 9 years old. It’s amazing what the future workforce is already able to accomplish today. Regardless of the help they have from AI, they are clearly able to apply it in a successful manner.”
Everything is becoming more – more traffic, more data, more bad actors. There are simply more topics that need to be addressed today.
How are you resourcing to keep up with this?
We are using more technology, more training, and more resources. Thinking about the network-enabled golden triangle for People, Process, and Technology (PPT), we recognize that this framework highlights that no single side of the equation can solve challenges alone, all three are needed, working together for an optimal efficiency and output.
There currently isn’t a struggle to hire cyber resources as the pay scale for these workers is, at the moment, somewhat competitive with that of the civil world. Therefore, skilled resources are interested. Additionally, there is a view that working for the military to support cybersecurity means protecting the society. Major General Teichmann would also prefer to hire someone who is highly motivated and not as well trained, as his team could then provide the training to bring the level that is needed. This includes everything from cyber skills and military technology to military culture.
How do drones play a role within your area of responsibility?
Drones are the part of the challenge we face, behind the scenes there is the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) needed for communications. When you talk about EMS the conversation quickly becomes classified, you can only talk about awareness on a more general level. From a military perspective it’s about understanding who is doing what within the EMS. Drones are a daily topic in the news, but the discussion related to EMS is currently lacking as this is enabling the drones to move from one point to another and communicate.
Thomas Neubauer, Co-founder/CEO, Dimetor added that “within the licensed spectrum of telecom networks you can’t identify a drone flying within the cellular network with an RF scanner as they are hiding among other users and their signals are mixed. We can tell that there is a flying SIM card, but it can be a friend or a foe. This means we need to consider SIM cards and know that those with legitimate use should be registered.”
Let’s talk about GNSS/GPS interference
This isn’t a new topic, it’s a specific frequency, GPS frequency 1575 MHz. This is easy as there is no bi-directional “conversation” on the GPS frequency. GPS and Galileo are omnipotent in our society. Everyone is using them in their daily lives so they are easy to handle.
What are some ways to cause disruption?
GPS & Galileo are fairly similar in design. GPS was designed over 40 years ago when today’s threats weren’t that present. There are challenges on the physical side due to the 24,000 km height of the satellite, and the signal which is very weak by the time it reaches the ground. In fact, it only takes a minimal amount of power to overwhelm it. Because of standardisation we know the bandwidth and frequency exactly. A 5G network would be much more difficult to disrupt due to frequency hopping.
There are two ways to cause disruption:
The first is called Jamming, which involves sending random noise on a frequency. It overshadows the GPS signal and then is gone. Users know something is wrong because the signal disappears. It’s a simple type of attack because it indicates that there is a problem. This is fairly easy to implement.
The second is Spoofing, which is much more complicated, because it requires a device to duplicate GPS signals and send a new and different location. You get a signal, but the location is wrong.
What options exist today to protect from this?
There isn’t a simple answer to this. The Austrian military uses a four-pronged approach:
- Awareness – raise awareness. Doing interviews like this one makes the public and businesses aware of current dangers
- Common operational picture – a situational awareness picture, as comprehensive a picture as possible. For example, an overview of detection mechanisms on airlines or at airports can also contribute information, but the threat is ever changing. Dimetor provides this by using the existing GNSS infrastructure, working with telco sensors in their networks and identifying opportunities to add more sensors to their networks. As a result, all sources are combined to provide the best possible situational awareness from ground to FL600. All data/facts on how to react are used, which can help to issue warnings and counter measures. Additionally, there need to be more sources beyond the telecommunications network information to review, for example space-based monitoring.
- Defensive Nav-warfare – All GPS systems can be hardened. Today these systems are open. The hardening can be addressed via hardware, antennae, software.
- Offensive Nav-warfare – Jamming and spoofing is a weapon which is needed in the military arsenal. An example of how this could be used is to stop an enemy drone swarm from finding its target and cause it to return to their original destination.
What’s Austria doing to be prepared?
Every year the Austrian military holds two jamming and spoofing exercises in a limited field training area in southern Austria
World Economic Forum use case
The Austrian military has been supporting WEF over the last 15 years. Davos, is located directly on the Austrian border. When Switzerland declares a no-fly zone, half of that no-fly zone overlaps Austria. The Austrian military worked together with Dimetor to provide jamming information pertaining to this no-fly zone for a week during the event.
About
Major General Friedrich Teichmann is Director of the Joint CIS and Cyber Command of the Austrian Armed Forces and and POC MoD for Space Services Development. MSc and PhD in Geo-Sciences at the University of Maine (USA), the University of Salzburg (Austria) and the University of Rochester (USA). Post-graduate studies in Geo-Informatics at the University of Salzburg (Austria), Telematics at the University of Krems (Austria) and Space Study Program at the International Space University (France). Lecturer for Space Applications, GeoSciences and Information Technology at several Austrian Universities.
Dimetor’s proprietary platforms, AirborneRF and NAVSentry, provide a unified source for aviation-regulated data and real-time insights into dynamic connectivity & dynamic people density, empowering automated BVLOS UAV operations and accurate PNT assurance.
