An investigation into malfunctioning GPS systems at Newark Liberty International Airport revealed that the culprit is the cheap jammers that are easy to buy online.

Like airports across the country, Newark Liberty is in the process of upgrading its navigation to the GPS-based NextGen system that has been planned by the government for ages. According to the report by Bloomberg, one of the new systems used by the airport was inexplicably turning on and off without warning. It turns out that truckers are to blame. Just a mile from the airport truckers cruising down the New Jersey Turnpike are using GPS jammers so that their bosses can’t tell their whereabouts.

GPS jammers are illegal and emit waves a billion times (!) more powerful that your average GPS signal. They’re also incredibly easy to buy online and the report raises an important question: As GPS becomes increasingly critical to our national infrastructure, should we be worried that these systems are apparently so easy to foil? [Bloomberg]

via Are Cheap GPS Jammers Bringing Air Traffic Control Offline?.