Why misuse of GPS can be very dangerous?

Kimmo Huosionmaa

When we are using technological things, we must realize that they are all dangerous, when they are misused. Let's think about the situation, where somebody misuses GPS-system. If you want to strike against somebody with the car or about the gun, in the past you must sit in the car and wait for that person, and after that, you must be noticed by somebody. But if you have that target's GPS-coordinates, you can find that person anywhere. That's why there is an enhanced CEP (Circular Error Probability) in civilian GPS-systems, what makes the precise positioning of the target impossible.


If somebody can crack those systems and break the security ring, he or she might make a rifle, what shoots to that target automatically. That is the problem with GPS system. The reason why the GPS is so popular in military equipment is that GPS guided weapons can use when the shooter can't get a picture of the target. The weapon must only know the position, where it has been aimed.


And if an attack plane comes to kill the target, it can close it from any angle, what the pilot wants, and that makes the defense more difficult. But when GPS-systems become cheaper also man carried weapons like anti-tank missiles can use GPS guidance. In that case, a small nano-helicopter will drop the GPS-system on the roof of the tank and after that, the missile can get the coordinates where it must be fly.


That makes possible, that shooter can hide behind the house or small hill and shoots the missile from the cover. Also, commando-units can use those systems to shoot their targets like ammunition warehouses and airplanes from the cover. Modern GPS system allows shooting even fast moving targets by updating the information about the position even a thousand time per second.


When we are talking about using GPS as a criminal equipment, those systems are dangerous, because they give us information, if some GPS phones are taken outside of the country, and if those telephones belong to the people who have access to the guns or powerful drugs, can the criminals go steal that equipment. Or if an armored treasure transports GPS signal has been hacked, the bandits can find that treasure and attack against it.


And the best way to hack that very valuable transportation is to use own GPS, what will put in the transport car.  The problem with those bandits is of course to locate that cargo, and that's why the situation. where somebody will drop own GPS system to those vehicles will cause an emergency situation. That's why that equipment could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.