With the near-universal reliance on Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies for communications applications also posing a range of potential security challenges, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has announced plans for a new testing program to evaluate how well GPS systems do against spoofing and disruption exploits.
DHS S&T’s 2024 GPS Testing for Critical Infrastructure (GET-CI) event is scheduled for Fall 2024. It will allow critical infrastructure owners and operators (CI O&O) and Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment manufacturers to identify any weaknesses in their gear.
“Accurate and precise Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) information is vital to the nation’s critical infrastructure,” said Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov, DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology. “The GET-CI test series are part of the S&T PNT Program’s collaborative efforts designed to help industry partners test and evaluate their technologies to become more resilient against PNT disruptions.”
Most testing conducted on critical GPS infrastructure usually occurs in a closed environment. This DHS S&T test will provide an “opportunity for CI O&O and manufacturers of commercial GPS receivers used in critical infrastructure to perform equipment evaluations in a rarely available live-sky spoofing and jamming environment,” stated DHS.
The testing event will also “create a live-sky GPS environment primarily for fixed infrastructure applications but will also support some ground-based mobile applications,” DHS said.
DHS is calling on commercial, academic and civil society organizations to submit applications by Oct. 20 to participate in the testing event next year.
