Lethal empowerment and electronic crime: A focus on radio-frequency interference capabilities
Lethal empowerment and electronic crime: A focus on radio-frequency interference capabilities

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the capabilities of criminals in using radiofrequency interference (RFI) devices to target systems that use theGlobal Positioning System (GPS). Surveying over a 22-year period during which GPS has been widely used by many industries, itseeks to understand how the electronic threat has evolved and changed. Focusing on the accessibility, usability, effectiveness, versatility,transportability, and concealability of RFI devices, and utilising a number of sources from engineering disciplines, hacker events, andmedia pieces, it argues that the more reliant we are on GPS, the more threat actors’ target choices and means, ends, and, indeed,motivations for targeting systems will expand, elevating the risks to GPS users. This article finds that arguably some of the mostdisagreeable actors have elevated from unsophisticated to semi-sophisticated in the space of 20 years, and can target systems cheaply,easily, and effectively. In the space of two decades, the combination of war, the expansion of digitalisation, the commercialisation ofmilitary systems, and the demand and supply that feeds technological innovations, have left us with an entirely different threat picture.

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