Resilience Through Responsible Use of PNT

This page provides information and resources for improving positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) resilience, especially in critical infrastructure.

As stated in the U.S. Space-Based PNT Policy: "The widespread and growing dependence on GPS by military, civil, and commercial applications, systems, and infrastructure make the performance of many of these systems inherently vulnerable if disruption or manipulation of GPS signals were to occur. GPS users must plan for potential signal loss and take reasonable steps to verify or authenticate the integrity of the received GPS data and ranging signal, especially in applications where even small degradations can result in loss of life."

Guidance for Critical Infrastructure Owners & Operators

Presentations & Information Sheets

• Jun 2021: Understanding vulnerabilities of positioning, navigation, and timing (PDF)
• May 2021: NIST-DHS presentation at RSA Conference 2021 USA
• Jan 2020: Responsible use of PNT in the financial services sector
• Mar 2019: Time — The Invisible Utility
  • Corporate level info sheet (PDF)
  • Technical level info sheet (PDF)
• Dec 2017: Responsible use of GPS for critical infrastructure

Best Practices

• Jul 2020: Time guidance for network operators, CIOs, & CISOs (CISA.gov)
• Jan 2017: Improving the operation and development of GPS equipment used by critical infrastructure (PDF, us-cert.gov)
• Jan 2015: Best practices for improved robustness of time and frequency sources in fixed locations (PDF, CISA.gov)

Implementation Frameworks

• Jun 2022: Resilient PNT reference architecture (DHS.gov)
  • News release (DHS.gov)
• May 2022: Resilient PNT conformance framework, v2.0 (DHS.gov)
  • Jun 2021: DHS transitions framework to IEEE for standards development (DHS.gov)
• Feb 2021: Free resources to protect critical infrastructure from GPS spoofing (DHS.gov)
  • PNT integrity library (github.com)
  • Epsilon algorithm suite (github.com)
• Feb 2021: Foundational PNT profile: Applying the cybersecurity framework for the responsible use of PNT services (NIST.gov)
  • News release (NIST.gov)
  • Quick guide (PDF)
  • RFI & webinars (NIST.gov)

GPS Week Number Rollover

Federal Activities

Demonstration & Testing

• Mar 2020: GPS backup/complementary PNT demonstration (transportation.gov)
  • Jan 2021: DOT report to Congress (transportation.gov)
• Apr 2020: GPS spoofing test event (DHS.gov)

Planning

• Nov 2021: A resilient architecture for the realization and distribution of UTC to critical infrastructure systems in the United States (12.7 MB PDF)
  • News release (NIST.gov)
• Nov 2021: An evaluation of dependencies of critical infrastructure timing systems on GPS (5.4 MB PDF)
• Aug 2021: National R&D plan for PNT resilience (700 KB PDF)
• Jan 2021: DOT report to Congress on NTRSA (transportation.gov)

Outreach

• Aug 2022: Complementary PNT industry roundtable (transportation.gov)
• Dec 2020: DOT workshop on maritime GPS jamming & spoofing (transportation.gov)

National Policy

• Jan 2021: U.S. Space-Based PNT Policy (archives.gov)
• Dec 2020: National Space Policy
• Feb 2020: Executive Order on Strengthening National Resilience Through Responsible Use of PNT Services (federalregister.gov)
• Dec 2018: National Timing Resilience and Security Act (NTRSA)
• Additional legislation on backup and complementary PNT

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