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Small Satellite Dish Systems 'Ripe For Hacking'

Posted by Soulskill on from the will-dish-it-out,-but-can't-take-it dept.

The Walking Dude writes: "According to the CS Monitor, 'Thousands of small satellite dish-based computer systems [VSATs] that transmit often-sensitive data from far flung locations worldwide – oil rigs, ships at sea, banks, and even power grid substations – are at high risk of being hacked, including many in the United States, a new cyber-security report has found.' Dr. Jason Fritz said, 'Vulnerabilities exist at all nodes and links in satellite structure. These can be exploited through Internet-connected computer networks, as hackers are more commonly envisioned to do, or through electronic warfare methodologies that more directly manipulate the radio waves of uplinks and downlinks.'"

12 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. We'll see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have a hard time taking anything with the word "cyber" seriously.

    1. Re:We'll see by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

      Offenders should be sent to Cyberia

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    2. Re:We'll see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      to the Googlags

    3. Re:We'll see by rmdingler · · Score: 2
      Heh heh. Nice.

      Perhaps this is a model we've seen before.

      As each exploit breaches a security vulnerability, the patch makes the security a little better, rinse, repeat... and then before you know it, some headless bureaucrat insists on security considerations as an important development consideration.

      It has been described as an arms race by folks smarter than me, and that means it's a scenario that doesn't suck for future IT employment,

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

  2. Competition. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't take computer security seriously any more. Everything's an arms race where the only way to win is not to be important enough for anyone to want to make an effort against you.

    If we had a culture based on cooperation rather than competition, we wouldn't have everyone taught and therefore trying to get one up on everyone else.

    It's been hundreds of years since humanity has established new societies based on cooperation (no, Marxism-Leninism is nothing of the sort). Let's stop lazily thinking of ourselves and try again, if we're intelligent enough.

  3. Even satellite can be hacked by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the 1990's a communication satellite belonging to China was hacked and the hackers (rumored to be a state-sponsored hacker group) changed the tee vee channels on that satellite to carry anti CCP programs.

    Almost 20 years have passed and nobody claimed responsibility over that incident, but it is believed that the hacker group was sponsored by some state (nation) because it does take quite a bit more ooomph in term of beaming power in order to hack into a satellite orbiting the Earth.

    As for that particular Chinese communication satellite, China tried to "unhack" that bird but failed. So China took the "Plan B" route - they junked that bird, shut everything on that satellite down and now it's floating up there doing nothing.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  4. No surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All software is shit, all hardware too. We've long abandoned a development model that is focused on correctness. It has been features, features, features for decades. So what do you expect? Of course everything's ripe to be hacked. We had a choice.

    1. Re:No surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Abandoned" implies that this used to exist. Look at FTP, horrifically complex protocol that handles a lot of what we use load balancers to do today with zero security. The good old days weren't quite as good as we remember them to be.

    2. Re:No surprise by toshikodo · · Score: 2

      I disagree, we never had a choice to do anything other than build these systems with their bugs. I know because I was there back in the dawn of remote digital telemetry systems. We had enough issues with just getting the stuff out of the door on time and to budget (and usually failed on both counts). Development models such UML & quality standards like ISO9001 just didn't exist back then.

      We we pioneers, not engineers.

      The real problem here is with the CEOs of the corporations that use this old tech. They won't do anything about it until they are forced to, either because some hacker causes the sort of damage that results in multi-million dollar law suits, or (and this is much less likely) the legislators force them to do something about it.

      --
      No volcanos here
    3. Re:No surprise by KingOfBLASH · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Most locks can be picked with a lock pick

      Many cars can be compromised with a screwdriver and thin piece of metal to open them.

      Many anti-shoplifting devices can be disabled if you know how.

      The list goes on.

      True security costs money and effort. A LOT of it.

      For most applications, as a society, we err on the side of too little security (and accept the small chance that security will be compromised, because it's not an issue).

      This is because, historically, security issues have been quite local. People don't steal enough in most neighborhoods to justify putting bars on your windows. People don't shoplift enough to justify a full cavity search of anyone entering or exiting a department store.

      Technology is of course changing all of that. Before, if we know there is a 1 in a million chance of a bad guy in the population, most small communities were not afraid. Now, it is possible for a single determined hacker to do all kinds of crazy things. That's where people have not caught up, and in the future we will have to start making choices with regards to whether we want to expend the resources for true security. And we might do it if there are enough incidents to justify it -- but perhaps not before.

  5. Sat tracking by spacefight · · Score: 2

    And nowadays we know that sat tracking is easy these days thanks to various free and open software/hardware around.

    If you can spare some minutes on a lazy Sunday, watch Travis Goodspeeds Talk on 30C3 from a couple of weeks ago.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktnQ7nBCuqU

  6. captain midnight hacked HBO years ago by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    GOODEVENING HBO
    FROM CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT
    $12.95/MONTH ?
    NO WAY !
      [SHOWTIME/MOVIE CHANNEL BEWARE!]