Finland Reports Rising Satellite Signal Jamming and Tanker Spoofing Likely Linked to Russia

Finland's Coast Guard reported persistent disruptions to satellite navigation signals in the Baltic Sea since April. In recent weeks, authorities have also observed tankers manipulating their location data, likely to conceal visits to Russia, Reuters reports.

Earlier, Finland’s Minister of Transport, Communications and the Interior, Lulu Ranne, stated that Finland suspects Russia is responsible for the disruptions detected in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and GPS signals used for navigation in Finland and the broader Baltic Sea region.

The Coast Guard reported that GNSS jamming has been on the rise since April in the Gulf of Finland, and has caused ships to become disoriented or veer off course. 

"In recent weeks, we have also observed that (Automatic Identification Systems) devices have been intentionally turned off, and thus the location information has been spoofed in online location systems...so that an incorrect location is shown for the vessel," Commander Pekka Niittyla of the Gulf of Finland Coast Guard told Reuters.

Niittyla noted that the spoofing is a recent phenomenon, with the Coast Guard detecting it around 10 times so far among various tankers visiting Russian ports near St. Petersburg.

"If a country buying Russian oil does not want to see that the oil was purchased from Russia, the seller or vessel might use spoofing to make it seem like the vessel had not visited Russia," Niittyla said.

The Coast Guard stated that it believes Russia is jamming satellite signals to shield its oil ports at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland from potential Ukrainian air strikes or drone attacks, adding that the absence of reliable navigation signals, coupled with unidentified oil tankers navigating the shallow and relatively narrow routes of the Baltic Sea, poses significant risks to both maritime security and the environment.

Last summer, a series of mysterious break-ins at water treatment plants and towers across Finland sparked concerns that the incidents may be part of a wider gray-zone operation by Russia, Foreign Policy reported.