"Probably Lying" Becomes "Here Is the Picture"

Lloyd's List Intelligence has added a feature called Satellite Confirmed Spoofing to its Seasearcher ship tracking service.

First, the problem in plain words. Ships broadcast their own position. That broadcast can be faked, which is called spoofing. Two weeks ago we wrote about four tankers in the Black Sea that were broadcasting positions in the middle of Lima, Peru. Software can spot patterns like that and raise a flag. But as the company's research chief Arne Staal says, "detection models are by nature probabilistic". The software is giving you its best guess.

What is new. When the software flags a ship, the service can now look for a satellite picture of that spot at that time. If the picture shows no ship in the search area, the case moves from "probable" to "confirmed" spoofing.

One limit to be clear about. The picture shows the ship was not where it said. It does not show where the ship went. The company itself calls it an extra layer of confidence, not a final answer.

Why that difference is worth money. Think of the person who has to act on it. A chartering manager who refuses a ship, a bank that stops a payment, an insurer that questions a claim. "Our model says 80% likely" is hard to defend when the other side calls a lawyer. A picture of empty sea, with a time on it, is evidence that the position was false.

What we do not know, and it is a lot. No customer is named. No price. And the big one: how often is there a picture at all? Satellites do not photograph every piece of sea every hour, and clouds get in the way of ordinary cameras. A check that works for one flagged ship in three is very different from one that works for one in fifty. The announcement does not say.

The wider pattern. Last month a P&I club offered members a second way to check their own ship's position. This week a data company offers a second way to check somebody else's. Position is no longer something you simply believe. Before you sign for any screening service, ask what share of its spoofing flags it can confirm with a second source. [Smart Maritime Network · Lloyd's List Intelligence · AiatSea, 27 September]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 11 October 2026.