Have you thought about what would happen if we lost satellite connectivity?
Author: Richard Hoptroff, CTO and Founder, Hoptroff
From timestamps on financial transactions to data transmissions, our global economy, infrastructure and society are held together by time. When clocks between computers get out of sync, the system starts to break down. Without secure, precise, scientifically measured time, every network controlled by computers is at risk.
You have to look no further than front page news to know we have a problem with satellite security. It is time to catch up and ensure our critical infrastructure is in step with the fast changing world it operates in.
We rely on satellites for both time and location
Highly accurate timing, down to the microsecond, has previously only been utilised by financial services, but has the potential to go much further.
A new appetite for timing has emerged as our reliance on virtual systems has rapidly accelerated, and there is greater concern regarding infrastructure resilience and its intersection with location data.
This shift was made even more concrete with the publication of the UK government’s geospatial strategy that recognises the need not only to expand our capacity to verify location, but to make existing systems more resilient.
Location data is important in navigating the new digital world
Real time location data has become a pillar of many parts of the digital world. From monitoring pollution levels, to autonomous vehicles and of course, navigation purposes.
Whether you are a pilot flying a commercial plane, or you are finding your way across London to meet a friend for coffee, you are relying on GPS to tell you where you are and how to reach your destination.
In financial services GPS is frequently used to send a time feed to servers that handle high frequency trading. If clocks on servers drift and are untraceable back to a verified source of universal time, orders can look as if they arrived before they were sent, and there is no way to determine whose time was correct.
When a single delivery chain might involve many servers and that action is repeated thousands of times, then it is clear how lack of synchronisation will compromise the usefulness of timestamps when you are trying to reconstruct a chain of automated activities after an event.
It is clear that many industries are highly dependent on accessing accurate location data instantaneously 24 hours a day without interruption. But what happens if GPS goes down? This is a conundrum governments around the world and the defence sector has been grappling with and has highlighted some gaping vulnerabilities and the possibility of malicious and deliberate jamming and spoofing that urgently need addressing.
This is not just a question of resilient infrastructure, it is a question of national and international security as well as a wake-up call that our sensitive location data and time feeds must be backed up by more than a single delicate satellite.
Turning time into place
Traceable timing software solutions can help mitigate these infrastructure vulnerabilities, as well as providing accurate location data. Traceable time is time that is known to be correct by way of an unbroken chain of comparisons back to the national standards institutes who maintain universal time.
While this has been necessary in other industries for some time, such as telecoms and power generation, it was only with the introduction of the MiFID II regulations for financial services.
Ready to learn more?
Hoptroff Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS®) is a range of network and software-based timing solutions that are simple, resilient, and cost-effective.
Whether you need the security of verifiable time for compliance, protection from risk and fraud, or want transparency and efficiency, our obsession with accuracy will transform your business.
