LOCATION SPOOFING DETECTION

• US 20150065166A1
• Filed: 08/29/2014
• Published: 03/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Location Sentry Corp.
• Original Assignee: Location Sentry Corp.
• Inventors: WARD, Matthew L., SPIEGELBERG, Craig E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,282,435 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0244 Accuracy or reliability of position solution or of measurements contributing thereto
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A spoofed location detection system using information collected from a radio signal or information from multiple receivers collecting multiple radio signals to validate a location estimate.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving, from a device, location information and collateral information;

analyzing the collateral information;

sending the analyzed collateral information to a database;

receiving a response from the database, the response including at least geographical data for the collateral information; and

comparing the location information provided by the device with the geographical data to determine if the location information is valid.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the collateral information is a cellular beacon associated with a transmission location of the device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the collateral information is a radio beacon.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the collateral information is range information.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the range information is radio signal timing.

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the range information includes power level information associated with at least one of a radio signal from a transmitter and a cellular signal from a base station, each near a transmission location of the device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the geographical data includes at least one of terrestrial topology, geographical location, and address information.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a second location information provided by the device at a second time after a first time of the location information;

comparing the location information with the second location information to calculate a distance between the second location information and the location information; and

determining if the location information is spoofed information if the distance de is unlikely.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of comparing a second collateral information from the device with the second location information to determine if there is a second mismatch that exceeds the threshold value to determine if the second location information is spoofed.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the collateral information includes satellite signal information.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a second location information provided by the device, wherein the second location information is associated with a second collateral information;

comparing the location information with the second location information to determine if there is a mismatch; and

determine if the mismatch exceeds a threshold value that indicates the location information is spoofed information.

12. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory operably connected to the at least one processor, wherein the at least one memory includes instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the apparatus to:

receive location information and collateral information from a device;

analyze the collateral information to derive geographical information associated with a transmission location of the device;

compare the location information with the geographical information to determine if the location information is valid.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the collateral information is a cellular beacon associated with a transmission location of the device.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the collateral information is satellite signal information.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the collateral information is range information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the range information is radio signal timing.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the range information includes power level information associated with at least one of a radio signal from a transmitter and a cellular signal from a base station, each at a nearby transmission location of the device.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the geographical data includes at least one of terrestrial topology, geographical location, and address information.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 including further instructions that cause the apparatus to:

receive, from the device, a second location information at a second time after a first time of the location information;

analyze the second location information to calculate a distance between the second location information and the location information; and

determine if the location information is spoofed information based on a lapsed time, which is calculated using the first time and the second time, compared to the distance change over the lapsed time.

20. The apparatus of claim 12 including further instructions that cause the apparatus to request additional information from the device to at least update the location information.

21. The apparatus of claim 12 including further instructions that cause the apparatus to:

receive a second location information from the device, wherein at least one of the location information and the second location information are associated, at least in part, with a satellite signal information;

analyze the satellite signal information to determine geographical data for the satellite signal information;

compare the location information with the geographical data to determine a mismatch value; and

determine if the mismatch value exceeds a threshold value, which indicates that at least one of the location information or the second location information is spoofed information.