She Spoofed Sea Ships by the Sea Shore: Measuring Large-Scale GPS Spoofing in Global Maritime Traffic

2026-09-29

AI Summary

This study addresses the long-standing lack of quantitative assessments regarding the scale and structure of global maritime GPS spoofing, which poses severe threats to shipping safety. We propose a pioneering large-scale measurement methodology leveraging Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, constructing a motion-aware analytical framework that integrates trajectory anomaly detection with geospatial correlation modeling to systematically identify regional spoofing signatures and quantify evidence strength. Our analysis precisely localizes 31 persistent anomalous hotspots, confirming strong GPS spoofing evidence at 22 locations. Furthermore, this work reveals, for the first time, covert attack patterns associated with geopolitical conflicts and enables early warning of security risks in critical waterways such as the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

Abstract

GPS spoofing has emerged as a serious threat to maritime security, yet its global prevalence, persistence, and structure remain largely unmeasured. In this paper, we present the first large-scale measurement study of maritime GPS spoofing, using global Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, which contain the GPS coordinates broadcasted over time by ships across the world. We focus on large-scale regional spoofing, where external interference displaces many vessels across an area at once, leaving a recognizable signature of physically implausible motion correlated across ships; our motion-aware, marine-specific framework identifies this signature and grades the evidence for GPS spoofing in each region it finds. Applying our approach to AIS data from over 367,000 vessels collected between late November 2024 and early February 2025, we identify 31 persistent anomalous hotspots across high-traffic maritime regions, at least 22 of which show strong evidence of GPS spoofing, with spatial and temporal structure aligning with regional conflict and economic sanctions. Notably, our method found that the spoofing activity in the Red Sea responsible for the highly-publicized grounding of the 75,000-ton container ship, MSC Antonia, was ongoing months before the incident, which has not been previously documented. Similarly, we detected persistent spoofing in the Strait of Hormuz over a year before the 2026 Iran war brought commercial shipping through the Strait to near-standstill. Together, this work establishes GPS spoofing as a widespread, recurring, and measurable threat to global maritime navigation.

Problem

• GPS spoofing
• maritime security
• AIS data
• large-scale measurement
• regional spoofing

Innovation

• GPS spoofing
• AIS data
• maritime security
• anomaly detection
• large-scale measurement