Somali pirates go high tech

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By Neal Ungerleider, Fast Company

Somali pirates aren't content just floating around in their fishing boats, looking for victims. These days, pirates off the Horn of Africa are turning to a sophisticated mix of weaponry, jury-rigged GPS devices and ingenious hacks of shipping-industry databases to hunt down prey. The resulting technology isn't just fascinating — it also has a real impact on foreign millitaries who are fighting piracy.

In addition to random attacks on cargo and passenger ships, Somali pirates are increasingly relying on the use of GPS systems, satellite phones, and open-source intelligence such as shipping industry blogs in order to figure out the location of ships. Much of the technological infrastructure used by the pirates is allegedly located in the Somali city of Eyl, which has been described as the "piracy capital of the world."

In an interview with Abdullahi Jamaa of Egyptian Web publication OnIslam.net, Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers Assistance Program detailed the methods used by the pirates:

"The most important thing for Somali pirates is getting relevant information regarding merchant vessels that they wish to hijack. But this does not come easily without the use of certain technologies […] What they must know includes information on the value of vessels, the value of the goods and the number of crew members […] They use navigational technologies in their daily operation. This involves a combination of technologies, most important[ly] they use satellite cell phones for long range communications."

Satellite phones are easily attainable in the chaos of Mogadishu; foreign importers earn a hefty premium bringing the expensive phones into the beleaguered country. However, the weapon in the Somali arsenal that's most interesting to Western observers is the use of pirate-operated radar to locate targets at sea. Pirate “motherships” with radar and advanced weapons capabilities have strayed far beyond the Horn of Africa to locales as far-flung as Madagascar, India and the Persian Gulf.

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