India’s Civil Aviation Minister has revealed that local authorities have detected GPS spoofing and jamming at eight major airports.

In an written answer presented to India’s parliament, Minister Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu said his department is aware of “recent” spoofing incidents in Delhi and other incidents since 2023.

His response confirmed recent incidents at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, plus “regular” reports of spoofing since 2023 at Kolkata, Amritsar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai airports.

As The Register has previously reported, attackers who wish to jam GPS broadcast a radio signal that can drown out the weak beams that come down from navigation satellites. Spoofing a signal sees attackers transmit inaccurate location information so receivers can’t calculate their actual position.

Either technique means pilots can’t rely on satellite navigation – doing so could be catastrophic – and must instead find their way using other means.

An August 2025 GPS jamming incident saw the pilots of a plane carrying European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen resort to manual navigation. The EU blamed that incident on Russia.

Minister Naidu didn’t offer any information on the source of the spoofing and/or jamming but did say the incidents caused no harm.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has asked the nation’s Wireless Monitoring Organization “to possibly identify” the source of interference and/or spoofing.

The Minister’s written answer also states that the AAI “is implementing advanced cyber security solutions for IT Networks and Infrastructure” and notes “the global Cyber Security threats to the aviation sector are in the form of ransomware/ malware.”

“Cyber security is ensured by continuous upgradation,” the minister wrote. “As the nature and type of the threat changes, new protective measures are being taken.” ®