Click Here 130. A wrinkle in time: GPS jamming in Ukraine and its ripple effects
May 14, 2024
Exploring the impact of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian power grid, GPS jamming's disruptive effects, and the innovative solution by a tech team to keep power flowing. Lena Khan's fight against tech giants and the broader context of cybersecurity threats and satellite vulnerabilities.
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Ukrainian Power Grid Struggles
- Joe Marshall met a Ukrainian power transmission delegation at a steakhouse and learned about their extreme challenges.
- They shared stories of repairing transformers and the unexpected GPS jamming problem disrupting their grid.
GPS Timing Key to Power Grid
- GPS satellites provide critical timing signals used to synchronize operations in industrial systems like power grids.
- Jamming these signals causes the Ukrainian power grid to malfunction, unable to time-stamp data and communicate properly.
Ukraine Grid Synchronizes with Europe
- Terros Bussive and his team prepared to connect Ukraine's grid to Europe’s pre-invasion.
- Amid war, they succeeded quickly to enable emergency power supply from Europe, relying on GPS timing.