Grounded MSC ship near Jeddah likely a victim of GPS spoofing
Af The container ship MSC Antoniahas been grounded for the third day on Tuesday at Eliza Shoals, west of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.
This is reported by the media outlet Splash247, which states that the 7,000 TEU container ship from MSC has been stuck for three days.
Tracking of the vessel suggests the grounding was likely caused by so-called GPS spoofing of the ship’s GPS receiver, which resulted in incorrect data in the Automatic Identification System (AIS).
This is the assessment of the analytics firm Windward, which has traced the ship's movements and the falsified GPS signals. The theory is supported by data from MarineTraffic, according to the media outlet.
GPS manipulation (GNSS manipulation)
- GPS jamming disrupts the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS), typically causing it to completely lose GPS functionality or to receive inaccurate positions near its actual location.
- GPS spoofing sends false GPS signals to the ship, which can cause its GPS receiver to display an entirely different position—sometimes thousands of kilometers away.
Windward notes in a report that in 2024 alone, there has been a significant escalation in the capacity for sophisticated GPS manipulation and a 52 percent increase in the number of recorded incidents.
According to the 2024 report The Great Disconnect, GPS manipulation and cyberattacks are rapidly on the rise globally. The attacks highlight how easy it can be to gain control over a ship, according to the report’s authors—cybersecurity firms Thetius, CyberOwl, and HFWi.
One of the examples cited in the report is the case of the tanker Stena Impero, which in 2019 was misled by fake GPS signals into sailing into Iranian waters, after which the ship and its crew were detained for several months.
