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A12 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 5 February 2022

Digital warfare tech at sea helping U.S.

foes evade sanctions

examples found by Wind-
ward involves a 183-meter-
long oil tanker that could
be tracked sailing to Iraq
even as it was in reality
loading crude in Iran, which
is banned from selling its oil
by U.S. sanctions.
The tanker, whose name
Windward asked to be
withheld so as not to dis-
rupt any potential U.S. gov-
ernment investigation, set
sail on Feb. 11, 2021, from
Digital warfare tech at sea helping U.S. foes evade sanctions the United Arab Emirates,
reporting its destination as
By JOSHUA GOODMAN only now cropping up in Basra, Iraq. When it was
MIAMI (AP) — Technology commercial shipping, with 20 nautical miles away, its
to hide a ship's location serious national security, global navigation system
previously available only environmental and mari- began exhibiting strange
to the world's militaries is time safety implications. drifting patterns. Twelve
spreading fast through the Windward was able to days later, its transmission
global maritime industry identify suspect ships using stabilized and it could be
as governments from Iran technology that detects tracked heading back
to Venezuela — and the digital tracks that don't cor- through the Hormuz strait
rogue shipping companies respond to actual move- at normal sailing speed, this
they depend on to move ments, such as hairpin turns time fully laden with crude.
their petroleum products — at breakneck speed or Satellite imagery shows
look for stealthier ways to drifting in the form of per- that during the two-week
circumvent U.S. sanctions. fect crop circles. voyage a ship of identical
Windward, a maritime in- William Fallon, a retired length and with the same
telligence company whose four-star admiral and for- red deck broken up by a
data is used by the U.S. mer head of the U.S. Pacif- white pole and bridge was
government to investigate ic Command, said U.S. au- spotted dozens of nautical
sanctions violations, said thorities have been aware miles away, in Iran's Kharg
that since January 2020 it for some time of the threat Island oil terminal. That ves-
has detected more than from electronic manipula- sel was then followed on
200 vessels involved in over tion, one of a growing num- satellite sailing back to the
350 incidents in which they ber of so-called "gray zone" UAE, its course merging
appear to have electroni- national security challeng- with the reported position
cally manipulated their es that cut across tradition- of the original ship after it
GPS location. al military, commercial and resumed its normal trans-
"This is out of hand right economic lines. mission.
now," Matan Peled, co- "Any time you can deceive Under a United Nations
founder of Windward and somebody into believing maritime treaty, ships of
a former Israeli naval of- you're somewhere where over 300 tons have been
ficer, said in an interview. you're not is concerning," required since 2004 to use
"It's not driven by countries said Fallon, who is now an automated identifica-
or superpowers. It's ordinary a board member of the tion system to avoid col-
companies using this tech- American Security Project, lisions and assist rescues
nique. The scale is astonish- a Washington think tank. in the event of a spill or
ing." "It illustrates the extent to accident at sea. Tamper-
Peled said U.S. authorities which people who don't ing with its use is a major
have been slow to catch have any scruples are will- breach that can lead to of-
on to the spread of tech- ing to go to achieve their ficial sanctions for a vessel
nology that has been part objectives and the ease and its owners.
of the electronic warfare with which they can do it." But what was intended as
arsenal for decades but is One of the more egregious an at-sea safety mecha-
nism has also driven a pro-
liferation in ship-spotting
platforms like MarineTraffic.
com.
Experts say such websites
can be easily tricked since
they partly rely on data
gathered from thousands
of amateur base stations
that function like police
radio scanners picking up
maritime movements. q