A study of AIS tracks from more than 367,000 vessels found 31 persistent maritime anomaly hotspots, with at least 22 graded by its authors as having strong evidence of GPS spoofing. One Red Sea displacement appeared near Port Sudan in January 2025, five months before the MSC Antonia grounded. The findings point to recurring interference, but the data do not identify who transmitted it or establish the full cause of the grounding.
What the study measured
The research team analyzed vessel tracks collected from late November 2024 to early February 2025. The paper, submitted September 29, 2026, describes the work as the first global measurement study of large-area maritime GPS spoofing using real-world vessel movement data. It is listed as forthcoming at IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2027. The paper is by Anna Raymaker, Ryan Von Brock, Ryan Pickren, Animesh Chhotaray, Frank Li, Saman Zonouz, and Raheem Beyah; Chhotaray’s research profile identifies him as a research scientist at Georgia Tech and lists the work as IEEE S&P ’27.
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The reported totals are detections within the study’s dataset and method—not a share of all global shipping, nor a count of confirmed attacks:
- More than 367,000 vessels in the analyzed dataset.
- 31 persistent anomalous hotspots, of which at least 22 had strong evidence of GPS spoofing according to the authors.
- 17,936 anomaly episodes across 2,663 vessels, totaling 31,328 hours of anomalous operation.
The observation period ended in early 2025, so these numbers do not describe continuous monitoring through 2026.
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How can AIS tracks reveal GPS spoofing?
Automatic Identification System (AIS) messages include vessel-reported positions and movement data. The researchers did not directly detect or locate a radio transmitter; they inferred possible interference from tracks that appeared physically implausible and from the way anomalies aligned across ships and locations.
From an odd track to a regional pattern
- Model expected movement. A Kalman-based vessel-motion model flags individual tracks that depart in implausible ways from expected motion.
- Look for simultaneous anomalies. The method checks whether multiple vessels show related irregularities in the same area and time window. A shared pattern is more consistent with a regional event than a lone bad track.
- Cluster persistent zones. Spatial clustering groups recurring anomalies into hotspots, with evidence grades reflecting how strongly the observed pattern supports spoofing.
The study reports several distortion geometries: circular, linear, convergent, and irregular. It also describes validation checks using busy-port data and an independent comparison with NOAA AIS data for a synchronized Gulf of Mexico event. These checks support the analysis; AIS patterns still do not by themselves identify the source of a signal or prove who caused it.
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What happened near Port Sudan before the MSC Antonia grounding?
The paper reports a linear displacement near Port Sudan in January 2025, five months before the MSC Antonia grounded in May. A bulk carrier, Charmous, and at least 11 other vessels showed overlapping false movements. The authors say those paths matched the same latitude as the later MSC Antonia pattern to the fifth decimal place.
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The authors interpret the similarity as evidence that interference from the same source was repeated or continued. That is their interpretation of track patterns, not an independently established attribution. The available findings do not establish the precise transmitter, its operator, or the full causal chain behind the grounding. Hackread reported that the 75,000-ton container ship remained immobilized for more than five weeks; that report describes the grounding as attributed to GPS spoofing. Hackread’s report is a secondary account, not independent proof of the source or all causes.
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In practical terms, the January observation matters because it predates the grounding and resembles the later track pattern. It does not mean the study predicted the accident: its analysis identifies a prior anomaly, while the connection to later activity is the authors’ retrospective interpretation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where else did the researchers find anomalies?
The reported zones include the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, Red Sea, East Asian waters, Baltic region, and Strait of Hormuz. The authors also identify previously unreported zones near the Canary Islands, Gulf of Mexico, and Panama Canal.
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A secondary account groups the 31 zones into 13 corroborated, nine with strong internal evidence, and nine suggestive. These are evidence categories, not attack-rate measurements. The paper’s broader summary says at least 22 hotspots have strong evidence; do not read the category labels as proof that all 31 were confirmed spoofing sources.
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What the findings establish—and what they do not
- Established by the analysis: AIS tracks can expose coordinated, physically implausible vessel movements across an area, and the authors found recurring patterns consistent with GPS spoofing in multiple maritime regions.
- Qualified rather than certain: The study identifies 31 anomalous hotspots, but grades the evidence; at least 22 have strong spoofing evidence, not all 31 confirmed sources.
- Not established by AIS tracks alone: the transmitting equipment’s location, the responsible party, motive, or the complete cause of a particular maritime accident.
- Time-bounded: the analyzed tracks cover late November 2024 to early February 2025. They cannot be treated as a live global map of interference.
The paper’s authors conclude that their work establishes GPS spoofing as a widespread, recurring, and measurable threat to global maritime navigation. The most defensible reading is that large-scale track analysis can measure patterns of suspected interference, while attribution and incident causation require evidence beyond these tracks.
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