GPS Spoofing: Newest Threat to the Grid

According to researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio, GPS spoofing is the newest threat to the US power grid.  System hacking can happen in many ways, such as phishing employee email accounts or gaining backdoor entry through vendor software platforms, but of all the known tactics, GPS spoofing might be the easiest to pull off.

What is GPS Spoofing?

Simplistically, utilities place sensors throughout the grid to provide location-based measurements to operations personnel, which are time-stamped and used to make key decisions such as when to increase or decrease supply to accommodate fluctuations in demand.

The spoofing tactic involves manipulating these time stamps so that operations personnel receive incorrect readings.  This could lead to operations personnel taking inappropriate actions that create a supply/demand imbalance, potentially leading to widespread power outages.

Luckily, the same researchers that identified the GPS spoofing risk have received a $400k grant to develop an algorithm designed to not only detect the tactic, but also to correct the compromised time-stamp information and re-transmit the correct readings to the utility so that operators have access to the correct information.  Click here to read more about this initiative.

There is no doubt that the electric utility industry is under attack in a multitude of ways – whether it’s system hacking or increasingly severe weather driven by climate change or terrorism, it feels a bit like the wild wild west out there.  This is why now more than ever before, emergency preparedness needs to be at the top of the priority list across the utility industry.