AIS Vulnerabilities

[HarmlessWeasel]

I know AIS isn't for collision avoidance, but I imagine if someone were to carry out these sorts of attacks it could create some issues until it was spotted?

http://gcaptain.com/researchers-discover-security/

EDIT: Not much point watching the video apart from to see the code they've used. Everything else is explained much better in the article

[chris]

Couldn't get the link to work except with the cached copy.


Very interesting article though.

[YoungMariner]

Well it's all been said so many times before, if you understand the technology then you will understand how simple all this is.

[chris]

the ais radio link does use frequency hopping technology offering some protection but obviously not enough

[alistairuk]

AIS is just a VHF radio transmission, it is no less secure than using a VHF radio to give your details - nothing to stop you on your ship picking up your VHF and muttering some random false ships details over it.

Besides why would you go to that much hassle - just buy a damn AIS type A transmitter and enter fake data into it :-) most of the time the password to change the ship information is "password". Or if you want to screw it up, just transmit static at high power on the AIS frequencies - you see it occasionally around Israel area of the med on the DSC channel - when the system completely packs in.

At end of day the fake transmission would need to be within VHF range of the vessels / stations it's effecting and given the uses of AIS does it really actually matter - I'm sure we've all had false AIS targets spontaneously appear.

It's just typical media scaremongering and to be honest, hardly surprising gcaptain is giving it the time of day - I'm sure Telegraph will be all over it next month :-)

[chris]

my bad, should have said it sends the signal using self-organised time-division multiple-access, so no frequency hopping.

[GuinnessMan]

AIS is just a VHF radio transmission, it is no less secure than using a VHF radio to give your details - nothing to stop you on your ship picking up your VHF and muttering some random false ships details over it.

Besides why would you go to that much hassle - just buy a damn AIS type A transmitter and enter fake data into it :-) most of the time the password to change the ship information is "password". Or if you want to screw it up, just transmit static at high power on the AIS frequencies - you see it occasionally around Israel area of the med on the DSC channel - when the system completely packs in.

At end of day the fake transmission would need to be within VHF range of the vessels / stations it's effecting and given the uses of AIS does it really actually matter - I'm sure we've all had false AIS targets spontaneously appear.

It's just typical media scaremongering and to be honest, hardly surprising gcaptain is giving it the time of day - I'm sure Telegraph will be all over it next month :-)

Give it a week and the Daily Mail will be in the on act. I should run a pool on who they blame it on (will it be immigrants, terrorists or the Scottish?)

[YoungMariner]

Consider that the position and other data is what the transmitting station provides, so out false info in and get false info out. Ports are already trialling a system of putting out positions of buoys that dont exist to create a buoyed channel so it's only the next step up from that.

[bobofinga]

Ports are already trialling a system of putting out positions of buoys that dont exist to create a buoyed channel so it's only the next step up from that.

I'm sure I read something that said Pilot's follow radio signals to find approaches to Airports , this would seem a similar kind of system?

I know you have a better knowledge of Aviation than myself :P

[ETwhat?]

Right, the ship that they targeted will still be in the same place and will still be showing up to all the ships near by with ais. None of the data it has set will have changed and if anyone had an ais reciever in the area of where they moved the ship too it wont show up. What they have used is the free software avaliable from marine traffic that acts as a compiler taking the ais data from a reciver located somewhere and forwarding it on to the main website location. Similar to how the ecdis or radar gets the ais data it just needs a program to create a link over the interweb. So unless you use marine traffic for your navigation it wont affect you. It also wont affect a port as it should use a reciver rather than the web

[YoungMariner]

With increased technology and it's vulnerabilties we need to see more integrated bridges with better error detection based on linear quadtratic estimation using all possible inputs, in addition to much greater training in the fundamentals of the technology in use and how to detect errors. The lack of understanding is the biggest problem.

[Bulman]

BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24586394

I love the picture haha