European best practices in safe transport of dangerous material supported by GNSS

Transportation of dangerous goods is one of the main security applications in the transportation sector. Every day, dangerous goods like chemical substances or inflammable material are circulated through various modes of transportation including road, railways, waterways and air. Transportation of dangerous goods by road is the most common mode. It is also one of the most critical from the safety point of view, because roads are present in urban areas where the high density of population can increase the risk of civilian casualties in case of an accident. Like many other critical infrastructures, the transportation sector has been increasingly dependent on ICT components and services to improve the exchange of information. Because mobility is an important aspect of this sector, the services of positioning and navigation, like the one provided by GNSS, are particularly important. The paper presents the results of the FP6 MENTORE project in the area of transportation of dangerous goods by road. MENTORE project implemented and deployed a pilot project where GNSS (GPS/EGNOS enabled) devices integrating door sensors, are mounted on the vehicle to collect information on position, date and time, and door opening/closing events. The information is then transmitted through a commercial communication system (GSM/GPRS and satellite) to a control centre, where these data are compared against a predefined path. Any deviation generates an automatic alarm to notify law-enforcement agencies. Systems for the transportation of dangerous can present vulnerabilities, which can be exploited by attackers with criminal intentions. GPS or GSM/GPRS signals could be jammed to cause Denial of Service (DoS) or spoofed to provide a false position. The paper identifies the main vulnerabilities of systems of transportation of dangerous goods and describes the related mitigation solutions or best practices, which can be adopted to minimize the risk for the population.

BALDINI Gianmarco;  DE FAZIO Antonella; 

2009-12-09

Royal Institute of Navigation, London, United Kingdom

JRC53393

http://www.rin.org.uk/,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC53393,