How Satnav Britain could be left in a jam.(News)

Byline: David Derbyshire

BRITAIN is so dependent on the GPS navigation system that cyber terrorists could cripple banks, send ships on to rocks and bring death to the roads at the click of a mouse, engineers warn.

Satellite navigation technology is now embedded in almost every aspect of our lives - from ambulances and air traffic control, to banking and the transport of food.

But the system, which relies on a network of satellites broadcasting radio signals to Earth, is worryingly vulnerable to jamming, space weather and technical glitches.

It would take just one terrorist armed with equipment costing a few hundred pounds to block the GPS signal over London and leave banks, emergency services, power plants and airports in chaos.

Professor Martyn Thomas, chairman of the Royal Academy of Engineering's working group, said an accidental or deliberate system failure could 'just conceivably cause loss of life'.

'The UK is already dangerously dependent on GPS,' he said.

'We have become almost blindly reliant on it. A significant failure of GPS could cause lots of services to fail at the same time, including many that are thought to be completely independent of each other.' For most of us, Global Positioning Satellites systems are those handy navigation devices that get us from A to B in our cars. But the technology affects so many other areas of everyday life across Britain.

It is used by shipping firms, emergency services and delivery lorries. In industry it is essential for modern gas and oil drilling, while power firms rely on the free, accurate time signal from GPS satellites to control the National Grid and financial institutions use it to time payments. Mobile phone networks also rely on the signals.

The Royal Academy of Engineering report says GPS back-up systems are often inadequate, while jamming equipment is easily available. For a mere [pounds sterling]20, drivers can buy a jammer on the internet to temporarily disable the GPS tracking devices in their vehicles.

The engineers' report called on the regulator Ofcom to ban such equipment.

It also urged the Government to carry out tests with deliberate jamming of signals to give some idea of the impact of a widespread failure.