Focus Telecom’s GPS Resilient Kit protects against timing threats

Photo: Focus Telecom

Focus Telecom has installed its GPS Resilient Kit (GRK) cyber protection system in the national time systems of the State of Israel at the National Physics Laboratory in Jerusalem.

“A cyber protection system like the one installed in the National Laboratory, as well as many other systems we have developed to protect critical infrastructure, enable our customers to deal with the growing global threat and ensure the function of GPS-based systems, on which their business activity is based — even under jamming and spoofing attacks of various kinds,” said Shlomi Mazor, vice president of sales, Focus Telecom.

The company has developed a holistic model made up of several layers that can protect a GPS-based organization, according to the company.

Focus Telecom has been a leader in the field of synchronization and atomic clocks since 1995, and serves as Israel’s national timekeeper.

The company’s technology can detect an attack on an organization’s time sources, neutralize the threat of intrusion into the organization, provide alternative time from a secure highly accurate source, and protect internal organizational time distribution through a fiber-optic protection system through which time protocols are transmitted. It provides alerts for spoofing or jamming attacks as they happen.

Focus Telecom provides solutions in several layers, including secure NTP/PTP time servers, grandmaster atomic clocks, and radio frequency firewalls. These are protected by an active protection system that can detect and neutralize disruptions before they reach timing servers, and by additional technological solutions that provide effective protection against threats.

Focus Telecom cites recent jamming and spoofing incidents as highlighting the need for protection. For instance, pilots reported  disruptions of GPS signals in June 2019, making it difficult to access Ben Gurion Airport. These disruptions resumed in January 2022 and pose a renewed challenge to pilots.

In a May 2021 incident, farmers on the northern border and in the Gaza Envelope reported disruptions affecting the GPS-based guidance system installed in tractors used for sowing and harvesting.

Focus Telecom’s systems are successfully integrated into the Israel Defense Forces, defense industries, financial institutions, communications companies, and Israel’s transportation, electricity and water infrastructure.

Learn more about cyber threats on the company’s website.