Abstract—Satellite tracking is one of the most rapidly growing business areas in the world, and there are already many commercial applications available. Benefits for the customer are advertised, but there is no mention of information security. Modern satellite tracking systems contain communication on many levels, so they are vulnerable to many risks of information security. This paper covers the main satellite tracking system information security vulnerabilities and gives guidelines on how to make systems more secure. Keywords—Information security, Internet, Mobile network, Satellite tracking I. INTRODUCTION atellite tracking is one of the most rapidly growing business areas in the world. Tracking devices have become quite cheap, and they are available to nearly everybody. Even smart phones can be used as tracking devices. During the last decade, mobile network coverage has also grown, and internet has become as part of our everyday life. This evolution has enabled the innovation of new solutions, and one of them is the satellite tracking system. Risks of satellite tracking have not been investigated widely, so a few students of Laurea University of Applied Sciences started to make preliminary research in 2008. Research on the technical risks of satellite tracking systems continued in 2009, and this paper describes one part of this larger research work. This research revealed that information security in satellite tracking systems is not guaranteed, and this paper describes major vulnerabilities and gives some guidelines on how information security can be improved. II. SATELLITE TRACKING SYSTEMS Modern satellite tracking systems consist of many technical segments: the satellite segment, communication segment, data processing segment, and end-user segment. The basic principle is that the tracked device is positioned by satellites, Manuscript received December 14, 2009. This work was supported in part by Laurea University of Applied Sciences and by Tekes – the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. P. Kämppi, J. Rajamäki and R. Guinness are with the Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Espoo, Vanha Maantie 9, 02650 Finland (corresponding author to provide phone: 358-50-5140823; (e-mail: pasi.kamppi@ laurea.fi). and the positioning data is delivered for post-processing via mobile networks and the internet. This principle is shown in Fig. 1. Fig 1 Principle of a satellite tracking system A. Satellite segment The satellite segment contains techniques to calculate the device’s position from satellite signals. 1) GPS The most commonly used satellite positioning system is the Global Positioning System (GPS) [1]. It has been developed by the U.S. military, but service is also available for civilian usage. The system consists of 24-32 active satellites, and it covers whole world. Since the U.S. government stopped intentionally degrading the signal in 2000, the position data provided by GPS is quite accurate. 2) GLONASS GLONASS (Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikowaya Sistema, Global Navigation Satellite System) [1] is developed and used by Russia. The system is like GPS, and it should be able to offer as accurate as position service as GPS. In practice, the number of satellites operating in the GLONASS constellation has been quite low (8-12), so the service is as accurate as GPS. The satellite constellation is optimized so that usability is best behind Russian borders. 3) GALILEO GALILEO [1] is under development by EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service). EGNOS is project that is sponsored by ESA (European Space Agency) and the European Commission. The goal of this project is to develop navigation service for civilian usage, independent of the military. GALILEO is technically like GPS and GLONASS, and some devices will be able to utilize all three Information security in satellite tracking systems Pasi Kämppi, Jyri Rajamäki, Robert Guinness S PROCEEDINGS OF THE 3RD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ISBN: 978-960-474-146-5 153 ISSN: 1790-5109