The location information of more than 100 military ships a year is disguised by someone.Is it the aim of inciting international tension?

Analysis of more than 100 warships in at least 14 European countries, Russia and the United States has been different since August 2020, according to an analysis conducted by SkyTruth, a nonprofit organization dealing with nature maintenance technologies, and Global Fishing Watch. I found that it was in the situation where it was displayed in the place.

International law requires all vessels except small commercial vessels to be equipped with AIS transponders. AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponder is a device that uses GPS data to automatically transmit the ID, position and route, and traveling speed of the ship to be mounted to other ships in the vicinity every few seconds. The AIS signal is automatically broadcast to prevent ships navigating nearby from getting too close or colliding with each other, whether at night or in stormy weather. Recently, it is also used for analysis of AIS signals and detection of suspicious ships.

Of course, military vessels that require covert action are not obliged to issue AIS broadcasts. However, when navigating in the sea area or near the port, which tends to be crowded, this is used for navigating.

The SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch analysis teams compared AIS usage with verifiable position data using identification patterns to detect military vessels that were locating differently than they really were. For example, we have discovered fake AIS data that appears to have originated from a ship from another location with respect to GPS location information.

The reason why the ship needs to be misplaced and who is doing it for what has not yet been identified. However, analysts say that these data spoofing patterns are characteristic of Russia-based organizations.

Many of the ships disguised as AIS were from European countries and NATO member countries, some of which appeared to be invading areas near conflict areas such as the Crimea, the Black Sea, and Kaliningrad. If the Russian government is doing it, by intentionally disclosing such information to the domestic market, it can be used as propaganda to impress the people with Europe and NATO as invaders.

Russia has often been criticized for hacking Western countries, not just the location of ships. It is a common Russian-related hacking case to use fake accounts and thereby spread misinformation to fuel political tensions and try to achieve their goals.

If Russia really manipulates AIS information, it should be quite possible to fuel international anxiety and tension, even if disrupting the AIS of military vessels does not lead to direct engagement.

Source: SkyTruth

via: Wired