GPS timekeeping is increasingly vulnerable: here's how to deliver future-proofed time

"It might not be apparent, but almost everything people do in this digitally connected world, from sending a text or e-mail to doing an Internet search or paying for something online, depends on accurate, resilient timing. Most electronic communications rely on digital infrastructure that is synchronized to a common time reference, enabling information to flow at a known rate. Accurate timing is also crucial for synchronizing and stabilizing infrastructure such as electricity grids, for helping to ensure the integrity of financial transactions, for steering machinery"

"These deliver signals from space, with only a radio receiver needed to receive and interpret them. Chief among them is the US-developed Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS is free to use, and the technology is mature: miniature GPS receivers are now embedded in every smartphone, at a cost of a few dollars per unit. This is an easy, low-cost way to reliably synchronize time, certainly compared with the old method of physically calibrating your clock to a reference clock at a national standards agency."

"GNSS are far from fail-safe. In many parts of the world, organized-crime syndicates and military authorities are among those increasingly jamming GNSS signals (blocking them entirely) or spoofing them (transmitting false signals to provide misleading time and position coordinates). Disruptions to the signal due to extreme weather events are also on the rise. In some sectors, such as aviation, a multitude of systems would potentially be affected in the event of more-widespread outages."

Accurate, resilient timing underpins almost every digital activity and many critical infrastructures. Electronic communications synchronize to a common time reference to control information flow. Precise timing stabilizes electricity grids, ensures financial-transaction integrity, guides precision agriculture machinery, and coordinates transport, logistics, and postal delivery. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), chiefly GPS, now provide timing signals received with simple radio receivers and are embedded in smartphones at low cost. Heavy reliance on GNSS has generated complacency and risk: signals are increasingly jammed or spoofed by criminals and military actors, and extreme weather disrupts reception. Awareness of these risks is low and sectoral protections vary widely.

Read at Nature