Readers over the age of 50 will readily acknowledge the blessings of the modern GPS (global positioning system). Remember what it was like to fumble with paper maps while trying to steer a two-ton vehicle down the highway? Those maps never did fold back the way they came. And if the maps failed us, there was always the embarrassment of having to stop at a gas station or convenience store to ask for directions (I realize that men never, ever stopped!).It was not uncommon to get lost—and lost often—before GPS entered our lives. On such occasions my father would often comment, “Well, it’s a nice day for a drive.”Fast forward a few decades and we see the enormous impact GPS has had on our ability to get where we want to go. I find these systems indispensable, and as a frequent driver, I consider them to be among the best inventions of the past half century.But as with any innovation, it’s not always smooth sailing. As this month’s Thought Leader, Lisa Dyer of the GPS Innovation Alliance, notes, there always seem to be folks out there wanting to ruin it for the rest of us. They may be criminal organizations looking to cover their tracks, foreign nations looking to disable their enemies’ systems, or simply bad actors seeking to disrupt the movement of goods and people. They do it through jamming and spoofing of the GPS signals.For instance, the bad guys might jam a GPS signal by broadcasting different radio…
