Every time tech is used to fight crime, the “bad” guys just get better gear. The only crime-fighter that manages to always have the better gadget is Batman. Now car thieves are using GPS jammers to confuse the cars they steal, blotting out the satellite signals that the car needs to report its position to LoJack services.
It’s not hard to do, either. A quick Google Shopping search for GPS blockers shows models on sale for under $30. They don’t even need to be powerful. In order to swamp the incoming satellite signals, a jammer only needs to put out two watts of power. Speaking at a symposium, Bob Cockshott of “cybersecurity” company Digital Systems KTN said that “the strength of a GPS signal is about as strong as viewing a 25-watt light bulb from a satellite 10,000 miles away.” Small wonder that sat-nav devices take so long to acquire a lock.
It’s not just criminals who are using this tech, either. Employees whose cars are tracked by their companies use them to go off the clock, and according to The Guardian, German truck drivers use them to “to evade GPS-based road charging.”
Full story: Car Thieves Use GPS Jammers to Make Clean Getaway | Gadget Lab | Wired.com