Here at the Rocky Mountain Tracking blog, we love to share stories about how GPS technology is used in animal conservation efforts and wildlife research. Unfortunately, this story has a darker twist. Poachers have been attempting to hack into GPS tracking collars to access protected animals. Although it is fairly uncommon for poachers to resort to hacking, there is reason to believe an attempt was recently made in India’s Panna Tiger Reserve.
An Iridium GPS tracking collar was attached to a two-and-a-half-year-old male Bengal tiger, called Panna-211. The device was “configured to provide GPS data every hour for the first three months and every four hours for the next five months (the collar lasts about eight months). In July, the battery expired and the satellite feedback in the collar stopped working,” the National Geographic reported. The GPS data was sent to Dr. Krishnamurthy Ramesh via email for research and monitoring purposes.
Around the time the battery expired, he received notification that someone was trying to hack into his email that was sent the tiger’s location information. Dr. Krishnamurthy Ramesh explained that the GPS data is encrypted and can only be decoded with “specialized data-converter software and specific radio-collar product information.” The tiger has since been relocated and security has been increased.
“Only three people have legal access to the location data of the tiger’s collar,” reported the Times of India, who broke the cyber-poaching story last month. Legal teams are scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to classify the crime. There is debate whether it counts as an “attempt at poaching” or “hacking for criminal purpose” or a hybrid? Poaching is a huge problem and many have turned to GPS technology to help protect species from extinction. It seems even more security is needed to protect endangered animals from poachers. “In January, the conservationists will deploy drones for surveillance and set up wireless sensors to detect human intrusions into the forest,” Ramesh explained to National Geographic.
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Poachers Try To Hack Bengal Tiger's GPS Tracking Collar
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