Anyone can conjure ships from thin air with just a laptop, antenna and free software, frustrating sanctions enforcement
A fake vessel path Balduzzi and Pasta generated with simple software and a digital radio | Image: Balduzzi, Pasta and Wilhoit, “A Security Evaluation of AIS (Automatic Identification System)”
The Zero Cool, a small, U.S.-flagged passenger ship, had inexplicably strayed thousands of miles from its usual routes in Malaysia and approached North Korea’s territorial waters. Anchored just a few dozen miles off the country’s east coast, the vessel appeared to be heading toward disaster, its passengers and crew likely to soon find themselves staring down the barrel of a DPRK soldier’s gun.
Or at least, that was how one ship database made it seem. Half a world away from the Korean Peninsula, two Italian security researchers had been hard at work
