US officials say large ships are increasingly manipulating their GPS-based automatic identification systems, or AIS, to evade international laws and sanctions
New York TimesAnatoly Kurmanaev
Context & Ripple Effects
Maritime GPS manipulation has been escalating for years without a clear culprit: researchers first documented thousands of ships around Shanghai falling victim to GPS spoofing with no one able to explain it, and later analysis found over 100 warships from 16+ countries with faked location data suggesting they crossed into disputed territory. What changed is attribution — US officials now name sanctioned states as deliberate manipulators of ships' AIS transponders rather than treating spoofing as an unexplained anomaly.
That reframing matters because AIS is the shared trust layer of global shipping: ports, insurers, and enforcement agencies all rely on it. The same officials warning about transponder tampering have separately flagged China-owned repair ships as a tampering risk to undersea cables and a broader scramble to protect cable infrastructure, putting navigation and communications data alike into the category of contested maritime systems.
First-order effects
Sanctions enforcement loses its cheapest tool: if AIS positions can be faked, regulators and port authorities can no longer take a vessel's reported route or destination at face value when checking for embargo violations.
Legitimate operators face new scrutiny — a manipulated transponder makes an innocent ship look like a sanctions evader, so carriers and flag states must prove data integrity they never previously had to establish.
Second-order effects
Insurers and commodity traders will demand independent position verification (satellite imagery, RF detection) alongside AIS, adding cost layers to chartering and cargo insurance for anyone trading with or near sanctioned jurisdictions.
AIS shifts from a cooperative safety broadcast to a verified-security layer, pushing international maritime bodies toward authenticated transponder standards much as cyber concerns over hacked steering and propulsion controls are forcing a rethink of ship-system security.
If state-level manipulation becomes routine, the open sharing of vessel movement data — the foundation of maritime transparency since AIS adoption — fragments into trusted and untrusted zones, reshaping how navies, ports, and shippers exchange information.
The trend: Maritime positioning and identification systems are being reclassified from trusted public broadcasts into contested infrastructure requiring verification, as states weaponize the very signals the shipping economy runs on.
Nothing new. This occurs everyday for ship to ship oil transfers https://twitter.com/...
@steve_hanke
Steve Hanke on x
Ships are faking their GPS coordinates in order to evade Western sanctions on Russia. Instead of stopping the war in Ukraine, sanctions are spawning mafia-like activities on international waters. Sanctions never work. They are always counterproductive. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@varunvira_
Varun Vira on x
Great article on @C4ADS partner @WindwardAI and their amazing technology to maintain domain awareness over the worlds oceans even as rogue ships get better at masking their activities https://twitter.com/...
@big_orrin
@big_orrin on x
Does he realise it is not illegal to buy Russian oil and products anywhere apart from the U.S. (small amount) and Canada (zero)? All this deception with oil has been going on virtually since oil was discovered. https://twitter.com/...
@amidaniel1
Ami Daniel on x
Great to see leaders like @nytimes and @paulg tweeting about this ! This research by @WindwardAI was corroborated by US Officials and is impacting every day decisions by almost every trader , shipping company and bank who rely on AIS for due diligence . https://twitter.com/...
@indianexpress
@indianexpress on x
#IEWorld | Shipping data researchers have identified hundreds of cases where a ship has transmitted fake location coordinates in order to carry out murky and even illegal business operations and circumvent international laws and sanctions. Read here. https://indianexpress.com/...
@steve_e
Steve Evans on x
When nobody knows where some big ships actually are, autonomous shipping may have a few issues navigating https://www.nytimes.com/...
@aliabunimah
Ali Abunimah on x
Deceptive @nytimes article makes it seem unilateral US/EU sanctions are “international law.” Buried near end an admission that these ships are actually evading American piracy while going about their lawful business. Read article for bonus Israeli role https://www.nytimes.com/...…
@nytimesworld
@nytimesworld on x
A spreading technology enabling ships to fake their locations and carry out illegal business operations could transform how goods are moved around the world, with profound implications for the enforcement of international law. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@akurmanaev
Anatoly Kurmanaev on x
The sophisticated deception tactic was first spotted in Venezuela, on tankers trying to hide their trade of sanctioned oil. “What seemed to be a localized practice at first has soon spread to nearly all known maritime regions.” https://www.nytimes.com/...
@akurmanaev
Anatoly Kurmanaev on x
I started reporting this story last year to learn more about how Venezuela was adapting to sanctions, a relatively narrow topic. What I realized months later was just how crucial, and how fragile, the system of satellite data that shapes our world is. https://www.nytimes.com/...
@paulg
Paul Graham on x
“Over the past year, Windward, a large maritime data company that provides research to the United Nations, has uncovered more than 500 cases of ships manipulating their satellite navigation systems to hide their locations.” https://www.nytimes.com/...