Understanding & Using Spoofing Modules

Theia employs data fusion techniques to provide intelligence around dark ships and their activities. This includes the ability to detect and identify vessels that may be engaging in spoofing behavior.

Click here to watch a short video introduction to SynMax’s Spoofing Indicator Module.

Using the Spoofing Modules

Accessing the modules

To access the spoofing modules first select the Workspace icon followed by the Data Manager tab.

	Access the Workspace
	Access the Data Manager

Then ensure the Spoofing Events box is selected.

Changing parameters

The vessel length, width, type, and country parameters can help to filter the desired vessels.

	Indicates the number of Spoofing events/vessels at a given location
	Indicates an individual spoofing vessel available for analysis

Additionally, the following parameters allow you to further specify what type of spoofing activity to display: Footprint, Optical, and AIS.

• Footprint will highlight a heatmap of the likeliest location of the vessel (see Heatmap section below).

• Optical indicates a vessel not seen on imagery at a specific location.

• AIS highlights vessels with anomalies detected within their AIS track.

Additionally, the Vessel Toolbar has Anomaly Type with F, OPT, or AIS, designated to show which type of spoofing has been detected.

Heatmap and timeline toggles

	Opens the spoofing heatmap
	Closes the spoofing heatmap
	Opens the spoofing timeline
	Closes the spoofing timeline

Heatmap

Once a vessel is selected and the Show Spoofing Heatmap button is clicked, the result will show something like this…

As you can see, there is a red dashed line showing the distance between the spoofing event and the likeliest location of the spoofing vessel. The likeliest location of the spoofing vessel is highlighted (orange being most likely, working outwards to green as being possible but less likely).

Toggling the Show Spoofing Heatmap will hide the spoofing heatmap and the dashed red distance line.

Timeline

If you wish to view the timeline for a particular spoofing vessel then toggling the View Spoofing Timeline button will bring up this box…

After selecting a desired date range, clicking the View Spoofing Timeline button will show the slider bar which can be dragged showing changes to the heatmap on a 24hr basis, as shown below…

On some of the spoofing events, selecting Show Spoofing Heatmap or View Spoofing Timeline may result in this message. This is not an error message, it is merely a result of how spoofing is determined. Some spoofing events are detected solely with electro-optical imagery and therefore will not generate a heatmap.