Slashdot Mirror
Crackers Reportedly take Brit Mil Satellite
Xmas writes "Early breaking
news? British officials report the seizing of a
"military" satellite and a subsequent demand for
money. At least the British government can admit to being
cracked... and blackmailed...even if it took them two
weeks to release the story. " The news story has no comment from the British Ministry of Defense, while Police refused to comment because of the sensitivty at this stage of the game. What is known is that the Brits have 4 such satellites, and the crackers reportedly "altered its course". I'll be watching to see if anything more develops with this-like more then an anonymous cow...er-source is cited.
Who did that?
This just has to stop. This stuff is WAY to serious to be playing with.
Come on guys, GROW UP!
-ac
much too serious to be considered as 'fun' and the consequences are nothing but negative. this is the sort of nonsense that gives hacking a bad name and makes a case for gov't to impose restrictions.
How do you know that they're "playing"? Chances are, they are completely serious considering they are demanding money.
-Lord Crass
Ever think the brit gov might have done it themselves as an excuse to crack down on hackers and other assorted freedom folks?
ABC Radio is reporting the same story. More as it develops!
IRA ? Bin Laden? Who?
i didn't say we need (more) laws. i said we don't need people hacking satellites. i agree with you that this should/will be treated as an act of terrorism, and justifiably so.
then you shouldn't have them to begin with. Sorry,
no sympathy here.
How would the blackmailers in this case arrange payment? Surely Switzerland could convinced to suspend their promise of anonymity in banking?
Well, assuming this is a prank by nothing more than a couple of hackers, it will probably prompt the Brits to tighten their system up some, which is a good thing. If we weren't in (relative) peacetime, this could be much worse. Their intelligence business will be better prepared as a result of all this.
Oh mummy, our Great Empire is vulnerable to nuclear attack ... ground zero at 515' N 0W.
The procedure of kidnapping the satellite should be put into public domain under GPL for educational purpose.
Ok, this is scary and stuff, but...
In a way it is good, since they are
doing it in peace time and only demand money.
This is an early warning. To stretch the
analogy, this is an equivalent of peer review
in science or in open source movement.
It is criminal and hostile but it may have
positive consequences.
Whoever did this is dead. Will never hear about them ever again because British SAS will kill them. Cant have people with this kind of knowledge running around. There will be no job in British military, no ransom paid, and no trial. Whomever these guys are there good a crypto but I wouldnt bet on them with the combined intelligence network of the free world hunt'em down. Brainaics yes they are but common sense were shit. Hope those boys have a tombstone picked out! This story goes bye bye in a few days and so do these hackers.
I wonder why the British satellite is kidnapped.
...!
0 40/bombe.html
Japanese, Chinese or Indian satellites should be easier!
Anyway, i guess this is done by Britons since they are good at cracking code. Remember what they did in WWII? Bletchley Park, Engima, Turning bombe, Alan Turnings
Come to have a look before they are vaporized !
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/4
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/ccc/bpark/
and we're supposed to feel sorry for them?
why does britain need a fucking spy satellite,
anyhow? they planning on restoring their glorious
empire? so they can keep the world safe from the
likes of saddam hussein? i read this story as
"wanker professional spooks get burned by wanker
amateur spooks". no wait, that's a bit unfair --
the crackers might actually have been thieves,
which is a much more respectable profession.
Dead in an understatement. When they find them (an they will), they will extract every last bit of info, in anyway possible. Then kill them. You don't F*CK with the national security of any nation.
OK, all post-ironic Britain-bashing aside for a moment guys, be serious. Hacking happens a lot, and we know it.
What bugs me more (ahem), considering I am what you guys call a 'Brit', is that this story should appear just days after our wonderful government had a conference (delegates watched it on video only) with GCHQ, the Ministry of Defence, and all sorts of other spook types.
We've seen this before in the case of the US: Got a ridiculously large e-warfare budget requirement to justify? Get those scare stories out. Hold the front page! Ill-informed journalism incoming!
I'd say that was why it took two weeks to come out.
Mike (had an account but forgot the password, same old story)
A tisket, a tasket.
I'll put you all in a casket.
..against crackers, how could they defend them against enemy STATES !!??
Therefore: No valuable item damaged !
Furtermore: The incompetence among the militaries are shown for the taxpayers, which is god !
The hijacked satellite used 56-bit DES for encription. Since US and Britain is such a pair of good friend. The britons are bounded to help Uncle to promote her wonderful DES!
Some suckers out there discover the book "Cracking DES" published by O'Rielly. The book is GPL with tailor-made source code for scanning. They even put the sentence "Scan This Book" at the cover ! IT is available online as well! So after 18 months of works the suckers build their own DES cracker chips (thousand of them) at US$ 200,000.
Linux (RedHat 5.2) is used as the OS to run the software for mining the private key on an AMD K6-300 (overclocked to 333). Thanks to the superior quality of Linux and the US gov's stupid DES. The suckers manage to find the keys in two days only.
For your reference,
http://www.redhat.com
http://www.eff.org/descracker/
http://www.amd.com
Have any of the 'Brit-bashers' actually read this
story? It says that the satellites "are used by defense planners and military forces around the world" i.e. not just Britain. It could be *your*
country's defences which come under threat next!
There must be more than we know. It could be other goverment, someone inside or their own agency. Blackmail could be just for feeding the story, getting the attention elsewhere and faking the motive. Lets get paranoid... they might have faked the whole thing to feed the "need" to get restrictions and laws.
Stop watching news, watch X-files...
L!
Not the first time, either, as noted above.
Happens all over. The Governments want to control the Net, full stop. Since that's hard, requiring extreme measures of all kinds, they have to have public support for things that are just plain attacks on civil liberties.
Here in the US, we don't have a lot of sympathy for the military any more; the USGOV has been to the well too many times with the "national security" excuse. So it's generally "..hurting the poor little kids with porno.." or "..them guys ain't playin' fair.." Either way, you can get the ignorant to support things that actually aren't in their own best interest by scaring the hell out of them. Slashdotters tend to emote a lot over Microsoft's "FUD tactics." They ain't got nothin' on good ol' Jesse.
Looks like the Brits are maybe a little more respectful of their military. I'm thinking, though, that those people aren't in as much trouble as you might imagine, since it's highly (2 sigma) that they were sponsored on the sly by the Brit and/or US intelligence community, or had someone on the inside. This ain't a security breach, folks.
It's a PR stunt.
Ric Locke
warlocke@wf.net
If we assume that the news stories are accurate, and that this kidnapping is being done by a non-government person or organization, is this considered to be an act of war? Would Britain have the right to retaliate against the perpetrators with military force? It would be interesting to see how the international community treats a terrorist act with no immediate human casualties.
Would this be considered more or less hostile than the bombing of US embassies? No one has been hurt by this kidnapping (yet), but it is a direct attack on a much more critical part of the military.
This will be followed, pretty soon, by some bemedaled and/or highly "respected" person(s) pushing it for all it's worth. Subject: the absolute necessity to crack down on these evil folks--for which read control, censor, and/or restrict access to the net.
Three gets you five the guys aren't of any interest to the SAS, either, since they're probably sponsored by same or their parent org.
Just another "scare the hell out of the ignorant to gain more power" stunt. Works well here in the US if you appeal to the health of kiddies. Maybe Brits still like their military better.
What's that? The IRA's making them look like a bunch of dumbshit stiffs? Oh yeah! Well, that'll teach ya not to fuck with the Irish.
So it's OK for a terrorist to do but it's childish for a kid in his bedroom to do? Terrorists rank right up there with child molesters and wife beaters on my shit list. I wouldn't think twice about putting a bullet in their heads without a trial.
Read the article. I really doubt that any satellite carrying highly sensitive/classified information (like a spy satellite) is left this vulnerable.
Uhm... Even Iraq has access to at least "mid-level U.S. encryption technology", as most/all of the algorithms get published, or are readily available in other ways... Besides, lots of the algorithms in question have been developed outside of the US.
And I'd stay far away from wherever the money were taken... Maybe arrange with someone doing heavy duty money laundering to pick up the money, and pay you somewhere else (like a different country) at the same time they confirm that they'd receive the money...
Less than 3-4 links between the original pickup and myself would be faaar too little ;)
But then, I think I'd get way too paranoid if I was supposed to pull of something like that.
I think most are underestimating these hijackers. The hijackers have not actual harmed anybody at this point, and terrorists in the middle east have killed people and there still running around. I am sure those dirty bastards don't have half the intelligence of these hijackers. I am almost positive though they will never get any money, but I can possibly see them getting away.
I think a large group of TRUE hackers (not crackers) should go take the thing back. Heck, the most common mistake hackers make, which gets them caught, is that they hack someone better than them.
This would do two things:
A). Save a bit of reputation for the HACKERS.
B). Let people know, that the only defense against having a few good hackers, is having A LOT of good hackers, that way at least some of them may be on YOUR side.
-- Keith
Anonymous because I didn't get to choose my password.
Britain has access to exactly the same encryption
technology as the US, it's just that less of it
is covered by patents in the UK. By the way, The
British Government *invented* RSA during WWII!
NOT ME
call me when someone obtains a true clue.
/bin/laden
:)
that is the funniest thing i have seen all week!
Oops...
wrong red button...
Folks, save the satellite and ship hi-jacking for opportune moments.
The Lenoids would have been a very good time to put a couple of satellites back into the atmosphere.
2k fast approaches, be sure to have your hacks lined up for then, so the CIA's little mellenium predictions turn out to be true. After all, they're going to have hack of their own lined up; so, let's have a little chaos for the chaos makers.
And the next time you do something that the military doesn't agree with, you'll be next. Assasinations in secret are the hallmark of facist dictators, not constitutional democracies.
Besides, if their miltary tried shit like that, I hope the crackers crash the damn satelite. And then post on usenet how they did it all.
A fairly simple approach to "ransom" would be to avoid actual collection -- demand $50M given to Greenpeace, the dismantlement of a chemical weapon stockpile, release of political prisoners, maybe the withdrawl of Pacific Lumber from the headwaters nat'l forest. Something the perpetrators don't need to ever collect.
Have you any idea how difficult it is to tackle a large, organised group of terrorists with plenty of funding? No, I don't fucking think so. It's in a completely different league to bringing down a couple of crackers.
If you can name one country that has successfully and swiftly dealt well with terrorism on that scale then I've obviously misjudged your level of complete stupidity.
You make me sick.
ha, follow the link provided! It is the online version!
http://www.eff.org/descracker/
The US is an independent country, as are Iraq,
the UK, France, etc. None of these countries
should be expected to give a shit about the UN.
We can bomb whoever we damn well like to bomb.
They can bomb us back if they dare. Violence is
a completely natural part of life. You might
have trouble accepting that if you grew up in
a nice peaceful environment, but get used to it.
Many countries don't listen to polite requests.
The UN exists so that the government has an
excuse to pass laws that the people hate.
By plane, duct taped to a 2000# bomb.
I think a harrier could do it.
To hell with sympathy. I'm sitting here underneath a sky inhabited by a military satellite that's being controlled by some dumbass kid who probably uses zeroes for 'o's when he spells things. I don't trust that kid to keep this thing in orbit, quite frankly. I trust him to try, but I really doubt that he's qualified to be sending course corrections to a damn satellite. Thank god "military satellite" means "flying camera", not "gun platform".
With any luck, the thing will land on your house, not mine.
The British government isn't asking for sympathy anyway, but I did notify them of the position that you've taken. The Queen was inconsolable; she couldn't stop sobbing long enough to say anything coherent. Prime Minister Tony Blair was deeply hurt, but he managed to hold himself together and say, "If Mr. AC has chosen to abandon us, it is certainly a profound blow, but the people of the United Kingdom will not be disheartened. The battle is not lost. We will prevail". Early reports suggest that in response to your statement the Archbishop of Canterbury has decided to celebrate a special Requiem Mass for the British Empire. I have just received confirmation that millions of Londoners have gathered in every public square in the city, weeping and rending their garments, consumed by unbearable grief.
if you invade somebody's country and occupy it, they will kill you. they've got a perfect right. the french did it to the germans in WWII, and the irish have been doing it to the english all along. it's called reality. if hitler had occupied england, the english would have done the same.
tough shit. if you don't want to get killed, don't start a war.
Blowfish is definitely an American product, I guess you meant IDEA, which IS Swiss. Switzerland, by the way, has no import or export controls on cryptography.
You don't have to use what u descible as the high-power uplink facility before u can connect to the satellite. In the simplest form, all u need to do is to break into ground station's computer network.
-Capatain DayDreaming
No idea what got your hair bun in a tissy, but you are dead wrong about the IRA.
Ever hear of the "trying times"? Know what I mean when I say the "black and tan brigade"?
No, there is no difference between the IRA and the students in China protesting the Communists. The IRA is simply a more mature outgrowth of what began as peaceful protest against an oppressive and overbearing British presence in Ireland.
Don't comment on issues you have *no business* commenting on. You only make yourself look like a jackass.
And by the way, remember who it is that's gotten the Chinese upset recently? Why by golly, it's those peaceful students, hacking into government systems and defacing web pages. When peace is exhausted, violence takes over.
The black hand will strike again.
how does anyone on this pitiful comment board know that the UK government isn't fabricating the whole 'money demand' thing?
theyre out on a public relations campaign, and the brit disinformation society is one of the best in the world.
The next target of those suckers is the US nuclear
warhead secret center at McDonald headquarter.
Really feel like April fool has come earlier this year. El Nino effect?
ENGLISH PIG
When somebody shoots at you, you've got a right to shoot back. There may be some cases where that's not the best approach, but this "violence never solves anything" routine is just nonsense. For an intelligent person, violence is a last resort, certainly, but it certainly does solve things sometimes. For example, violence solved the Third Reich's ass good and proper. We solved them back into the stone age. Fortunately, we had the rare good sense to be gracious in victory so it's been possible to maintain peace since that time (by contrast, consider the Treaty of Versailles . .
Do you live in the US?
Just remember that your freedom was bought by "terrorists".
When the terrorists win, history calls them "Freedom Fighters".
When the terrorists lose, they are forever known as "radical maniacs".
I bet it was Linus. Whenever Linus releases new kernel, Alan Cox releases his ac-patches. Linus feels Alan is pushing him too hard even when he was home(Finland)last X'mas!
1776: American terrorists attack and kill lawful British soldiers who are doing their lawful duty.
1999: Irish terrorists attack and kill lawful British soldiers who are doing their lawful duty.
What, did you think the Brits went "oh no, they dumped our tea in Boston harbor, lets move out". NO! You moron! American civilians -- terrorists -- shot and killed so many British troops that it became unprofitable for them to remain. The same thing many of the IRA are trying to accomplish right now, this very day, in Ireland.
the black hand will rise again.
big metior shower
1. There is no person on this earth that has the right to kill another human being.
2. Have you any idea how long Ireland was _a part of_ the United Kingdom? It was a heck of a lot longer than Scotland and Wales. I've no idea how Ireland became part of the union, but you can hardly blame the current British government and British people for events that transpired in the middle ages.
3. Northern Ireland was split off due to the _majority_ of people in that region wanting to remain part of the United Kingdom. Okay, so maybe the GB goverment made the wrong decision, but do you think the deaths of around 3000 people in the last _30_ years are fair retribution for things that happened before your parents (and possibly your grandparents) were even born?
If you think the answer to that question is yes, then you obviously have no appreciation of life, therefore do not deserve one.
> I wonder why the British satellite is kidnapped.
> Japanese, Chinese or Indian satellites should be easier!
Hmmmm.... What makes you think like that? Why should those be easier?
--
Arzka
Remember, the founding fathers put their "lives and sacred honor" on the line when they signed the Declaration of Independence.
Terrorist groups, however, work in secret; such covert operations do not involve "lives or sacred honor." Although most terrorists are willing to die for their cause, many won't public announce it beforehand.
There is your difference.
Well, we prety much are.
As anyone at all informed *must* realise this story doesn't exist.
The Brittish press are highly controlled. A measure of this is a story a while ago about a police officer who was corrupt - it was censored by the courts, but eventually overturned.
Now, if you think that these almost trivial things are covered up, do you really think a story like this would be 'leaked' just like that... and still be up right now? I think not.
Being Brittish, I have not seen any news stories anywhere to agree with the one on Yahoo...
Oh well, another story hits the dust...
in good company. ABC, NPR, and CNN just carried the story.
if it's a hoax, at least we're in the same boat as the rest of the media world.
Isn't it cool that illicit drugs, a 500 billion dollar a year industry, operated underground, with secret settlements via the international banking system, are the organized work of 8th grade boys and girls. Let's not forget all the little inner city youth, brown people - narco terrorists all, which JUSTICE strips of citizenship and puts in jail, and all that for us too.
Now that these teenage geeks are free, they are spinning out the enemy's military satelites. Poor Prince Philip! What shall he do? All those drug addicts he created are now smarter than he is. Hey, Charlie Battenberg (aka Prince Charles), stop messing with daddy's boys, er I mean toys.
Truly, what we need is a great big parade, with admirals and generals, bankers and politicians, judges and prosecutors. Then they can hold a conference about the dangers of teenage geeks and non-MS software.
Military satelites, indeed. What next?
I guess nazi gassbags need a life too.
The US (and many others) f*cked with the national security of Iraq. Does that give Iraqi's the right to kill Americans? I think you reasoning is a bit flawed.
And don't be so sure that the perpetrators will be so easily caught and executed by the British government. What if they are Iraqi's and sitting in a country that won't extradite them? Perhaps Iraq itself? I doubt we would bomb the country just to get at these individuals. Nor would we send assassins. I agree with the previous poster who said that secret assassinations are the hallmark of a fascist dictatorship.
I suggest the British government figure out what happened and fix it.
Destroy the satellite currently under enemy control once the other satellites are fixed. You shouldn't deal with blackmailers if there is any way to avoid it.
Oh *Please*. I thought that the majority of those who posted on this board has intelligence... I could take a guess and call you an Amercian... it's not unusual for that to be an insult in England, but then again, most of us don't because those at college have got past that stage.
... guess this has not even started. Is it just me who thinks satellite navigation is not the kind of subject one learns in school ? Something goes wrong and we might not even have the time anymore to think of what's up.
What the hell does this have to do with British satellites? Shut the fuck up....
The dickheads in the IRA that mostly blow up children, women and other civilians, have hardly taken the life of a brit soldier in ages (not to count this parade band, they heroically bombed).
Against the SAS they have gotten their ass kicked every time, on at least one occasion the IRA terrorists just gave up a hostage situation when they were told the SAS was in the area.
Oh, and I am not a brit.
Israel? Are you taking the piss? Do you really think that terrorist groups in Israel have the kind of funds that the IRA have (remember I said '...on that scale')? No way, man. Besides, you can't honestly say that the way Israeli disregards Palestinian civil and human rights is a good way to deal with terrorism.
Err, well, yeh he would......since, like, he'd see British news broadcasts, read British papers, etc. etc. I'd imagine he's a pretty good authority on whether or not there has been any other coverage of this in Britain.
Crackers are not inbred. Inbreeding tends to
severely reduce general health, including
intelligence. Even a "script-kiddie" needs to
have significant intelligence.
Pat Buchanan stands up for what is right. You
might not like him because he dares to suggest
that there is a morally correct way to live.
If you don't mind getting raped and killed,
I suppose that morals wouldn't matter to you.
Some of us would mind a great deal.
The only way to confirm if this story is true, is to wait for some high ranking security officers actually lost their job.
If noone hear anything in later months, than rest assure this story is a hoax. which than begs a new question...why is this hoax being pulled? who are they trying to fool?
I can't imagine a country is careless enough to loose a million dolar vital military equipment to some terrorist. That is why so far we never heard of a military sattelite being hijack. Otherwise we just witness the outmost stupidity a nation can make, which in this case, Britain deserve to get hacked.
There really was a French Resistance against the Nazis, and there was a lot of sabotage, spying, etc. Their army was pretty useless in 1940 but a lot of French people did very brave and scary things after that.
Don't forget Napoleon, either. They weren't *always* wimps -- just recently!
how is some ego-tripping kid at the wheel that much different than some ego-tripping General, smart ass? You can feel just about as safe in either case.
Generals won't be at the wheel; very boring Ada guys in ties will be at the wheel. And I will feel relatively relaxed about the damn thing falling on me.
"You're not even any good at shooting people, and you've got more guns than anyone else - you always end up shooting yourselves in 'friendly fire' incidents. "
Hmm, I may be wrong but last time i read my history book i seem to remeber kicking the shit out of England a few times. Saving your ass in the WW and so on. Lets just put it in terms that you can understand. If your country made a move against the US we could turn you into a parking lot for the next 2000 years.
Well i dont have a name yet....i guess i need to figure out how to register.
Oh, quit the Pommy whining :-).
;).
This is a little wierd though. Australian media isn't carrying anything, and theres nothing on the CNN web site. You would think this would be big news, but no, seems like there is nothing about it at all.
So it must be media beat-up or hoax. With what motivation? This really does look like it might be a set-up. But what sensible person watches TV for information these days?
Americans love their guns. I'm sorry we lost all of ours.
Aussie
seems to me that if they were "making a statement" they would issue demands and not demand money
grab your guns and canned food and head to the bunkers!@?!%@!? /dev/null
/bin/laden will split your cornholio head like a coconut!
-- from the land of
that both of you are arguing over something that neither of you will:
(a) Agree with each other
(b) Listen to the other
(c) and, stop arguing.
Seems to me, that you are just arguing so that you can prove to yourself that you are more right. The truth of the matter is that your so-called 'war' is the from the same thing that causes all the wars in the Middle East. You are so used to fighting and hating each other that you forget what the word 'peace' means.
OK, a list of (eventually) successful terrorist actions
Chinese Communist party, '40-50 Nationalist China
Shin Bet 1947 Isreal
Mao Mao insurgency Kenya
ZIPLA/ZANLA Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
Viet Kong
Boer uprising
And, of course, the American Revolution, where thousands of British died trying to put down a "colonial revolt". Guerilla action against the military may not be classical terror, but consider the treatment of loyalists and Canadians by revolutionary forces. "Subjugation by force" is exactly the same as terrorism, its just a more obvious means of scaring people into doing what you want them to.
In most of these cases, terrorism was not the only action taken by the forces behind it. It was accompanied by negotiation between percieved "legitimate parties" (who claim to be completely unassociated with the terrorists), but who nonetheless have got into their negotiating position by terrorist means.
Affiliates of the IRA are now negotiating a settlement. They would have been nowhere without the organised use of terror to publicise their aims. The fact that there are now negotiations going on with these people in a critical position shows clearly they are about to achieve their aims.
Huh?
From RSA's web site:
"RSA is a public-key cryptosystem that offers both encryption and digital signatures (authentication). Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman developed RSA in 1977.
I think it was partly developed at MIT.
The British did lots of computer cryptoanalysis groundwork during WW2. But nothing like RSA. They were more concerned with the German Enigma encryption machine.
Hahahahaha!
The funny thing here is, there might be a grain of truth to it.
Many of these satellites and other super-high-tech doodads carry obsolete software and componentry. This is because of the very high investments needed to test and certify stuff for use in space or other 'fail-proof" environments.
DES-56 was promoted in the 70's, when satellites were being produced in bulk for the cold war. Its just possible it was embedded into the hardware, and then political ass-covering resulted in crud encryption on something that really needed it.
Australia's brand new Collins Submarines are running on supposedly "state-of the art" Motorola 68000's.(1988 Amiga, anyone?) This is because there were no suitable alternatives with the kind of certification needed. And of course there are the computers in the space shuttle.
"I wonder why the British satellite is kidnapped.
...! "
... My hand calculator would chew it up and spit out plain text.
... right.
Japanese, Chinese or Indian satellites should be easier!
Anyway, i guess this is done by Britons since they are good at cracking code. Remember what they did in WWII? Bletchley Park, Engima, Turning bombe, Alan Turnings
Whoo the engima WHAT a CODE
Yeah the Brits are real good at cracking codes
The rubber hose method of code cracking will allways be faster.
www.eris.nu
Actually, you're dead wrong. There were three basic factions in Revolutionary times... those who sides with England, those who sided for independence, and those who could give a rats ass either way.
The "could give a rats ass" were about 60% of the population, with 20% each on either end of the spectrum.
And just ask, if you could, any colonials who took the side of the British what kind of treatment they received from the Revolutionary troops when they were found. Terrorists look kind by comparison.
According to some newspapers it was the Turkish government trying to kill the Kurdish liberation group's (also known as PKK) broadcastings which use European satellites.
The American Revolution did not have widespread popular support until after the fact.
Well, it sort of would have clashed with the Boer example a bit =).
What goes around, comes around, I guess.
Alledgedly a group of hackers have seized the moon
and threathens to make it crash on the earth, thus
destroying mankind if the UN doesn't give them $10.000.000.000.000...
C'mon! Get real! The Brit intelligence agency was
obviously the best (regarding encryption) during the WW2 and might
still be number one. (And I'm French...). I'd like to recall that Turing was English and that he was the
guy who decrypted Enigma. Also, from a recent article, it seems that British intelligence had
discovered Public-Key and RSA, before Diffie-Hellman and Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (no proofs but...).
All the military sats have been protected by STRONG crypto since the 50's.
If this sat has effectively been taken, then it is a major act of sabotage by a MAJOR intelligence agency.
I have a security clearance, and rumours of something like this would bound to be circulating where I work. Everyone today is talking about this, but that is because we all read slashdot :-)
The closest thing we can think of is that there has been some navigational problems with a french/euro controlled SPOT satellite a month ago. They couldn't get it to point in the right direction all the time, and since they pre-sell the views from each pass, this cost them some money.
Could that be it? The SPOT satellites are used by the intelligence communities in Europe, but the spot size is only about 3 meters. Not exactly keyhole resolution of 40 cms, but good enough for basic intelligence. The command channel of SPOT is known enough in amateur radio circles, somewhere around 2.1 GHz, and although it might be encrypted and authenticated, it might have been susceptible to a replay attack to change the direction of the scanning mirror.
Anyone think that is a likely scenario?
Anonymous for a good reason
An educated person on Slashdot? One who can quote ;)
from a book? Surely not...
Perhaps the satellite just went off course on its own and some hackers found out about it, seized the opportunity, and issued a ransom demand. Makes good press, and they might actually get some money.
Of course, maybe Dr. Evil's Big Boy spaceship just bumped into it.
YEAH BABY!
Who says anyone needs "high powered" uplink facilities? Many ham radio operators communicate with satellites daily using nothing more than an omnidirectional antenna and a few watts of RF. Digital data can be thrown into the mix with a $100 TNC (terminal node controller) or even an old 386 PC running some MSDOS-based software. They know exactly where in the sky the satellite is or when it'll next be visible using any of the countless satellite tracking programs out there available at low cost or for free. Download the latest keplerian elements from amsat.org or wherever, and you're on your way! Many known spy satellites show up in this list.
/. hears "military satellite" and automatically assumes that no lone individual or small, underfunded group could possibly crack it. It's the people who think outside the confines of the imaginary boxes who pull this stuff off. People who dare to try the "impossible" often discover that the task at hand is nowhere near impossible. It may be difficult, but that just serves as a motivator.
Granted, military equipment might require a little more hardware to communicate with, but not much. For instance, it's unlikely that a dish antenna would be necessary since most (all?) spy satellites are in low earth orbits (400-600 miles up) whereas high-gain dishes are generally only required for geosynchronous satellites orbiting at 23,000 miles up.
The tough part for the cracker would be determining the uplink/downlink frequencies, cracking the encryption, and decoding the underlying protocol. Often the uplink/downlink frequencies are known, and if not, a spectrum analyzer (possibly borrowed from one's university or employer) will help you ascertain the frequencies fairly easily. Cracking DES is a topic I won't even bother getting into, but obviously it can be and has been done. Decyphering the underlying protocol is simply a matter of watching what the uplink channel sends and how the satellite responds - hackers have been decyphering unknown protocols for years.
I'm always amazed at how easily the media pulls the wool over our eyes sometimes. Even the highly tech-savvy crowd here at
Look at it from a government's point of view: which is cheaper, making a system secure, or flooding the media with propaganda convincing them that it's secure? Judging from what I've seen here, propaganda works quite well.
The IRA does not fight a noble, romantic crusade.
You're getting into ground that I'm not even gonna tread on. I don't even have a political opinion on Northern Ireland, I was just countering the suggestion that people should be killed. You might say that my second point was a political opinion, but I was merely arguing the statement that people should die because Britain invaded Ireland, an event which happened 800 years ago. 800 years on, the situation isn't as simple as an invasion, so no one has "a perfect right" to kill anybody.
I don't care who is ultimately responsible for the killings (whether it's IRA, UDA, RUC, or British army) or why, the fact remains that it is wrong, and anyone who suggests otherwise is almost as bad as the killers themselves.
Hmmm.
Could it just be a coincidence that there was recently a UK conference on the threat to national security from hacking (or similar topic).
If I remember correctly it was reported briefly in the UK computer publications 'Computing' or Computer Weekly' in the past 2-3 weeks.
Scenario:
1) Have Security Conference
2) Release story about nasty evil etc hackers taking over a military something or other.
3) Go to government and ask for bucketloads of money to counter/research the threat.
Cyncial, me ? Surely not.
(Also what the hell is proper military equipment (as opposed to more admin type stuff) doing being publicly accessible ? Some commercial companies make the making of any form of publicly accessible connection to their proper internal networks a sacking offence, so I can only imagine how seriously the military take this.
Sure it's possible, but you'd need some serious and hard to come by information:
1) satellite orbit, transponder frequenc(ies), etc.; no big deal, some of this is even public; you need to know where to point your antenna and what you'll do when you do
2) the satellite's codes (hint: there is no "satellite OS"); either gotten from the satellite subcontractor or the operating agency; probably a renegade employee of one or both; not something you're likely to pick up trashing Hughes or TRW, but stranger things have happened
Physically, such a thing would look like a big blue three-ring binder with colored stripes and TOP SECRET -- KEYWORD -- NOFORN printed in huge letters on it, with the contents printed on TS/SCI paper. Not something you'd expect to sneak out of a building easily. NOT (emphatically) something that is kept in electronic form, anywhere.
3) the equipment to talk to the satellite (which by definition is easy to find in both senses, BUDs are cheap but one does not hide a Big Ugly Dish from high-resolution reconsats); hacking the ground station and using their equipment for this dirty deed is possible but again pretty damn hard, and doesn't subtract from the need for a code book
The problem is avoiding really nasty retaliation from the security people who failed to protect their multi-million dollar asset . . . people who will think nothing of breaking doors and heads with wanton abandon. And if you used to work for them they know _everything_ about you.
I wonder if this is the same people who hacked the Galaxy satellite over the US last year . . . Hughes declared the satellite unrecoverable within six hours of the failure, which is really unusual . . . they usually take a week or so to be really sure before calling their insurance.
In that case the bad guys probably entered three simple commands:
1) aim reaction thruster off at a weird angle
2) fire reaction thruster
3) ignore all future ground commands (i.e. crashing the OS remotely, or turning off power to the satellite's transponder, etc)
If the UK guys are really holding a satellite hostage, they've got brass balls. They're saying, in effect:
1) we own your satellite
2) we can kill it any time we want
3) we can kill it before you reprogram it
4) we can kill it before the SAS blows down the doors and kills _us_
5) we're betting our lives that you can't find us, with _you_ being a severely pissed national government
You may wonder why a satellite can be told to do stupid things. The reason why is that no one can predict what you might have to do to recover a damaged satellite, whether due to bad orbital insertion, micrometeor strike, enemy ASATs or lasers, etc. A few years ago Hughes recovered a commsat placed in a bad orbit by slingshotting it around the Moon, all on reaction thrusters.
My background: my father was project manager on a US satellite series. He talked some.
"What if this happened to a weapons platform?"
What weapons platform?!? Those are supposed to be banned! No one has nukes in orbit, or lasers, or ASAT kinetic-energy weapons. No, of course not!
Yes, such things exist . . . but people aren't supposed to know that they exist. And even those in the know can't be sure who's got how much of what (and what it can do) until it actually gets used.
A more realistic scare-the-mundanes scenario would be to hack a GPS satellite and reset the error factor rather suddenly from commercial grade to wartime grade . . . and watch all the supertankers run themselves aground and all the aircraft "land" 100 meters too low . . . ugly, ugly stuff.
And the US FAA is seriously considering ripping out the instrument landing system and depending only on differential GPS . . . real bad idea.
"Cyber-terrorism" is actually infrastructure warfare. The less said about that subject, the better!
I bet it was some renegade Iraq cracker. Sadam probably is paying people per satalite cracked
:)
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Let me guess, you work for the British military?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Uhh, check up on your facts a bit. The American Revolution did not consist of a tea-dumping party and a quick peace treaty. Americans shot and killed many British soldiers, whose lives could not be replaced.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
There has been some documented examples of people who "hacked" sattelites since the 80s, but usually they were folks who figured out how to use them to retransmit their signals - kind of an over-the-top ham radio operator. These guys would tune to the edge of an uplink channel and send morse code, which would then get retransmitted back down. That sort of thing wouldn't obviously involve taking control of the satellite, but just using it's intended operation to their advantage.
I was under the impression that the control channels for satellites was heavily encrypted, and the gvmnt/military satellites would be the most heavily encrypted of all. If it turns out that some independent individual did take control of a gvmnt satellite, without inside knowledge, then this speaks very poorly to the designers and the gvmnt officals who let this design go through.
Note: I presume that since Great Britain and the US are such great good friends, Britain would have access to at least mid-level U.S. encryption technology, possibly with a back door for the US spy agencies.
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
1) Where is the high-powered uplink facility?
and
3) How did you afford your own high-powered uplink facility?
It's not that hard to do. There's a ham in Texas who has an amazingly high-powered system in his back yard, used primarily for moon-bounce communications. NASA occasionally comes over to hook up to it to communicate with satellites if the satellite's antenna has lost track (the system is so high-powered that the satellite can receive it even if the antenna is not pointed at the earth). This ham built his rig entirely privately. If he can do it, others can. And, it wouldn't have to be as big.
4) With your fancy new high-powered uplink facility, how did you break the encryption and the access codes required to repurpose the satellite? How did you find the coordinates of is current location?
The coordinates are easy - the vast majority are published. The encryption is tougher - thus my note relatively early on in this topic.
The rest of your note is ad hominem attack, and not worthy of response.
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
Very few satellites "move on their own" (outside of their normal orbital motion), due to limited fuel on board. Once in orbit, they pretty much stay in the same orbits they start in.
And, there are published orbits for nearly every satellite, not just the geosynchronous ones. Take a look here and click on the OIG Main Page link at the bottom of the page.
Yes, it's reasonable to expect that secret satellites would not have their orbits published, certainly by the launching government and those friendly to them. However, there are other governments capable of figuring out the orbits and publishing them.
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
Actually, the girl's crypto thing was/is valid (though it needs more time for proper peer review).
So... I didn't see anything about Wasseignar in the mainstream media. Does that mean it didn't happen?
Okay, maybe that wasn't the best of examples -- nonetheless, tons of stuff goes on that the mainstream media just never picks up on.
You've got me totally wrong (and I don't know how - I re-read what I wrote) - I think this is totally totally wrong. Terrorism is evil - I've lived right in it - I used to do a lot of living on army camps - and believe me, that can be very scary.
Matt.
--
Matt. Want XML + Apache + Stylesheets? Get AxKit.
Nah. Their deaths will be faked and they will be forced to work as slaves for the British spooks until their minds are little better than mush. Then they will be paraded before the world as an example of what happens to those who mess with the big bad UK.
And without a trial...how do you know they're a terrorist? (heck, how do you know that with a trial?) Barring exceptional circumstances (like if they wanted to be caught..)
Daniel
Hurry up and jump on the individualist bandwagon!
For some time now, U.S. mass-media, politicians and intelligence agencies have been crying wolf about "cyber-terrorism", even though no real-world examples existed. Now we have one. Expect our "electronic freedoms" to be even more serverely curtailed very soon.
This inane security blunder will be bad for all of us. Likely these comm-satellites have lower security than other military systems, but that won't make it to press.
Expect "Cyber-Space-Terrorism" on 60 Minutes and all of the other "edu-tainment" shows. The question of the month will be:
"What if this happened to a weapons platform? I'm scared!"
And the answer will likely be:
"We must crack down on these computer nerd types. There is too much freedom on the internet. Encryption is a powerful weapon used (by evil men) to elude (warm-n-fuzzy) officials. We need sniffers everywhere."
Hold on to your seats, we're in for a rough ride.
/* MAGIC THEATRE
ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY
MADMEN ONLY */
Aren't most of the Caribbean anonymous banking havens British colonies?
Russia has a LOT of ex-KGB types, crypto specialists, crackers, &c., who haven't been paid for ages. It also has ruthless organised criminals with lots of ambition, the kind of bare-faced audacity that comes from thriving in anarchy and enough money to hire said spooks. This could be some Russian mafia group's idea of a "nice little earner".
Britain is not the US. I very much doubt that Britain could hypothetically get away with lobbing cruise missiles at, say, Libya, if Tony Blair was caught in a sex scandal. China is probably the only other nation that would have that amount of clout right now.
The American Revolution wasn't about "high taxes", it was about taxation without representation. Taxes weren't the only grievence, either. Basically, the colonists were fighting for their right of self-determination. The colonies were considered by the Brits to be under the authority of King George, and the colonists, who were supposedly British citizens, were not given any representation in Parliment. Yet this same Parliment passed many a law about the colonies.
Let's get our facts straight, please.
The mere fact that none of you ever heard anything about the World Trade Center bombing or the Oklahoma City federal building bombing or the embassy bombings in Africa should be sufficient evidence of how successfully the U.S. disinformation campaign keeps us in the dark.
But seriously folks, I suspect the ones you don't hear about are where the authorities find out about in advance and prevent terrorist activities and don't publicize it to prevent revealing techniques and sources as well as avoid giving the bad guys free publicity or giving anybody else any ideas.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Oh man, this fscking killed me, now I just wonder what the hell the command does... =)
First of all there are many 'grades' of military communications from secure to not so secure. It's not clear what kind of communications grade they're talking about here. Could be a satellite that supports the movement of pencils from one warehouse to another. Second - gov'ts do not go public with this stuff unless it is in their interest to do so. For example if it is already known that some communications are not secure and/or then eventually it behooves them to announce that fact in lieu of having to explain which coomunications are still secure and why. By analogy in the US, stealth aviation projects were black until it became obvious that a)there was political gain in going public and, b)they probably were not the latest generation.
No, I didn't do it. How dare CmdrTaco disgrace the name of the Anonymous Cow?!?
I wonder if it was SPECTRE?
I think that's *KAOS*.....and I always had the hots for Agent 99.
I prefer to believe that someone in the British government will have the sand to try them in public, although I am enjoying wondering just how smart the cracker-dudes will feen when a commando team blows the door and hauls them away to possibly face a firing squad if convicted.
If handled right, this case could have a salutary chilling effect on such shenanigans worldwide even if the perp.s only get prison time. I think I'm glad that someone finally pulled a stunt big enough to get slapped down HARD.
/bin/laden
Bwa-hahaha. =:) That was great.
Now just what the heck would that program do? Oh, the possibilities!
1) Where is the high-powered uplink facility?
2) How did you "break into" an air gap-protected uplink facility?
3) How did you afford your own high-powered uplink facility?
4) With your fancy new high-powered uplink facility, how did you break the encryption and the access codes required to repurpose the satellite? How did you find the coordinates of is current location?
5) Do you really think the British military is this stupid?
6) Have you been watching Superman and James Bond films too many times?
7) Do your friends call you "Captain Midnight?"
We're waiting.
Kris
Kriston J. Rehberg
http://kriston.net/
Kriston
... what an 3L33T Beowulf cluster -
- "Sir, beowulf spoof detected. Setting coordinates. Reentry of bird at coordinates in two minutes."
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
a little more palatable. Imagine someone seizing
control of a rail gun equipped warbird? *shudder*
As far as the whole "Hacker vs Spy" argument, who says it couldn't be a team effort? Ever read 'The Snowman & the Falcon'?
This should be an interesting story to watch, and if true, a really good argument for stronger crypto.
~Grell
"Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants -- the officers are there
just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare becoming a mere lower-class
brawl." -- Terry Pratchett
...when it gets down to fundamentals, do what you have to do and shed no tears. Dr. Matson in Tunnel in the Sky
Does too exist.
Try your local bookstore. Publisher is O'Reilly
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Excuse me, but last time I looked, blackmail, extorition, kidnapping, and murder are a piss-poor substituted for a political revolution. Killing/injuring people to make a "statement" is inane (and immoral), not to mention highly hypocritical.
There is a huge difference between those willing to stand up for their ideals, speak up, and put themselves at personal risk while attempting to change a political system, and those who advocate violence in the name of "progress" (ie, if you don't agree with me, well, Death To You).
If you can't see the difference between the students of Tiannamin Square and the IRA, or the American Revolution and the Reign of Terror, I feel sorry for you. But I won't feel sympathy when a grinning "freedom fighter" parks a U-Haul full of chemicals outside your place of employ.
-------------
and lest we forget, the last moron to do the above in these parts was an "american". :-/
-------------
"How do you have patience for people who claim they love America, but clearly can't stand Americans?" - Annette Bening in The American President
-Erik
There are always four sides to every story: your side, their side, the truth, and what really happened.
This remind me of some stuff that cDc (www.cultdeadcow.com) pulled during the 80's. I've heard numverous stories of them moving sats around in orbit. Although the coolest hack they'e pulled is seizing control of NASA's climate control and playing with the temperature controls at mission control.
Hey! The space shuttle had linux on board once. But it runs some version of DOS for itself I think.
I would not be surprised if there have been earlier incidents like this but between legitimate govs. I mean you can bet the USSR and the US tried this during the Cold War. It would be cool if hackers used their skills to take out military equipment of repressive governments as political protest.
xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
Beg pardon? The UK's not politically stable you say! What planet are you living on exactly? I've been living in the UK for 36 years and I can tell you _nothing_ ever changes here. It's one of the most conservative, backward-looking nations on the planet, even more so than the US in many respects.
Heaven knows what your definition of stability is.
Blowfish is american
http://www.counterpane.com/
There are a large number of non-military satellites that do not have encrypted command links.
Sending a command to a satellite requires an expensive transmitter and antenna, knowledge of the frequency, modulation and encoding used for the command uplink, and a list of the commands for that satellite.
Commands are usually sent in the form of binary numbers. For example, 1101000110101111 could mean "switch on transponder #2". Without a list of the command codes and their associated actions, it would be difficult to harm the satellite.
I would expect any military satellites to use encrypted commands. Their designers are paid to be paranoid about well-funded and technically sophisticated "bad guys" who may try to shutdown or destroy the satellite.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
There are two reasons for not using encryption.
One, it adds additional hardware to the command decoder, increasing its complexity and the probability that it will fail. Satellite engineers like to keep things as simple as possible.
Two, there may be diplomatic/political reasons that encryption can't be used if you use ground stations in other countries to uplink commands. Some countries will not allow encryption to be used for uplinked commands.
In all of the cases that I have heard of where a satellite was disabled by external commanding, it was due to mistakes made by the engineers and controllers in the satellite control center, not by "hackers".
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
hackers and other assorted freedom folks??
Since when has cracking had anything to do with freedom? Your freedom to transmit packets stops at my firewall. My freedom to throw a punch stops at your nose. Cracking is illegal, antisocial, childish, and in this case dangerous.
If this is actually true, God help those responsible. British security forces may not be as ruthless as their US or Israeli counterparts, but they are efficient enough. This is an act of war, and Britain hasn't lost a war for a very long time.
Yeah, it wasn't me either. (Not that I could anyway)
:-)
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Yeah, it's seriously silly that their nuclear defense depends on a satellite that 'a bunch of hackers' can hi-jack.. Blame the hackers? 'Oh mommy them evil people took my nukes, can I please have them back?'.. Reminds me of the Swedish armed forces and their oh so great IT projects, they used Microsoft Excel as a database for the USD 50 M strategic control system!!
;-)
Any army that wants to hire a fire-breathing self-proclaimed security and IT specialist (hacker)? I'm also well skilled in the military prerequisites (shoe polishing and other such activities) and I know how to roll a beret...
If they had hi-jacked one of the British subs that actually carry nukes I'd be afraid, but this just makes it a bit harder for them to retaliate (or start) nuclear attacks.
Them being British, will it be shown that they got some secret codes by blackmailing the right guy with inappropriate pictures?
Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
--- Jubal Harshaw
I can assure you that the project was not using Excel, but MS Access. But that project isn't ready or in use right now. (Well neither is acceptable but.. )
;-) And we all know that they write the best manuals available!
;-) ;-)
And it was supposed to be ready '96 if memory serves, when will it be... And wasn't there another wonderful project that came to nothing after about as much money and as bad components?! I remember laughing and crying at the same time when I read "My honour as a consultant forbids me to stay on this project".... I'm a taxpayer and they're squandering MY money!!
Anyhow the swedes have quite cool military systems, but I can't speek about that here =)
Oh, JAS is actually good. It crashes less than other models, but at the most inappropriate times
However, the Swedish military's IT strategy is the worst fsckup I've ever witnessed, makes me want to puke.. Like when Major "lets keep the schmeghead anonymous" boasts about having paid USD 50 M or so for access to MS Win NT 4 source... GAHH!!
They kept bwz as a slave for ten months, He's got bones to pick
Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
--- Jubal Harshaw
I'M AN IDIOT WHOM DOESN'T 'Preview'!!!
:-/
This link is hopefully better
at amazon
Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
--- Jubal Harshaw
As much as I hate to say it. I agree with you. While I'm very opposed to the death penalty, I think some people just have no right to breath the same air as the rest of us. Not to mention Terrorism almost never works. More often than not it just pisses more people off than promoting your cause. Now when your cause is a purely selfish one, like demanding money, it really doesn't hurt the cause any, but I still think these people should have a nice big old bullet in their heads. Now if it was some kid in his bedroom and just did it to prove it could be done, I think that he should be hired to help them fix the problem.
-matt
Throwing tea into a harbour is one thing. Blowing up buildings with people inside is 100% different. You can replace the tea. Try replacing a human life.
-matt
Using access as a military database, that's good. "I'm sorry sir, we can't launch the missiles. Why not? Well it seems MS Access corrupted the launch codes. We can still throw rocks at the enemy." Makes you feel secure.
-matt
Easily broken encryption has never been a benefit for law enforcement agencies, it has only been a benefit for criminals. Now we have direct evidence of this slapping us in the face. I hope legislative bodies are paying attention to this and are intelligent enough to make the right connection. It's not about government versus computer experts, it's about security versus public access to anyone.
Well, it would have been much more easier.
Why? Simply because the coordinates of those sats
are well known, and I guess that the control
channel of those babies are a lot less encrypted than their military counterparts.
And there's a lot of money to gain there too, for the one who controls the information owns the truth !
"After all, the only terrorist attack within the United States I can remember hearing about is the Unabomber. Considering how unpopular America is in some parts of the world, that seems a bit suspect."
I guess you slept right through the Oklahoma Federal building and the World Trade center bombings?
The US aren't alone in having strong crypto. Blowfish, for starters are Swiss as far as I know.
(though it's still illegal to export American products using blowfish to switzerland - go figure)
I really hope this is a joke. Why do we need satellites? Why do *you* need satellites? Why does anyone need em. And anyway, you yanks have to rent space in the Russian Mir.
Avoiding a flame sesh, every country when given the option whether to have a satellite or not is going to choose to have it, plus, the takeover isn't exactly headlining around the world, leading to the thought that perhaps this story is a little exaggerated.
--Remove SPAM from my address to mail me
Here's the info.
Cracking Des Secrets Of Encryption Resea
by GILMORE, JOHN
Published by OREILLY & ASSOC INC (1565925203, 1998)
Section: Networking-Computer Security
In Stock: 9 at 29.95
Trade paper; New - Standard Condition; Location: Technical
Bibliographic Information
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
the American revolutionaries published succint statements (eg, Declaration of Indep) of their grievences. may I see a succint stmt of the IRA's grievences with current British practices?
ElecMoHwk
ElecMoHwk
CEO / Founder Dashin.org
Trust me, I'm British, the "Brit disinformation society" could find it's arse with both hands and a map.
Anyone got a spare tin helmet?
:-(
Those things way upwards of a ton and WONT burn up entirely on re-entry...
Oh, and the power source is often nuclear
Having looked around on the major news networks, I can't see any mention of spy satellites being hijacked.
/. readers than anything else.
/. readers are all a load of loopy, paranoid Americans who think they know all there is to know about any other country's business.
This is all a load of bollocks, and it says more about
*
Why on Earth would anyone bother to hijack a UK spy sat, when US ones are much better? Hell, I didn't even know we had any spy satellites and I bloody live here!
Oh, and mind your own bloody business about Northern Ireland. That's nobody's business but ours and the Irish (and the people who live in Ulster, of course).
Sodding Americans are useless at foreign policy. Look at Vietnam, current problems in China, Iraq, Israel, etc. You're not even any good at shooting people, and you've got more guns than anyone else - you always end up shooting yourselves in 'friendly fire' incidents.
Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough.
Interestingly they confirm that the blackmail attempts did happen and are being investigated - but by the Fraud Squad.
Personally I never found it terribly convincing. If it did happen it would probably have to be an inside job, and certainly not the evil-hackers-on-the-internet story that was implied.
The leaked story is patently untrue. This could be a complete hoax based on an old James Bond novel or it could be something else, but it is not a story about greedy hackers. Breaking into a military satellite's "command and control" functionality would involve by necessity confidential information residing with government or contractors. This is a case of stolen intelligence if it is a case at all.
Would a hacker be able to hack his way into a sophisticated military satellite without the aid of inside information of any sort, I doubt it. Even a small organization of hackers working on the various problem would most likely never succeed. If they were to succeed they would have to possess intelligence in excess of that which would be necessary to believe they could publicly blackmail the British Government and get away with it.
If not hackers, then whom to suspect. Foreign intelligence services if in possession of such information would be better served by selling or trading in such matters or keeping quiet until such time as it was in their vital national interest to use the information such as thwarting an important British operation or in an attack on Britain.
The most likely, aside from hoax, perpetrators are Britons and/or Americans interested in destabilizing the British government. MI5 and MI6 like the FBI, NSA, and CIA as well as the respective intelligence agencies of military organizations all posses divisions with the capability of involving themselves in this kind of operation. We still do not know who produced the "Squid gee" tapes which exposed "degraded" Royal behavior.
The Blair administration like the Clinton administration in this country seems to lead a "charmed" existence. What, where, and how that "charm" exists is unclear to the public, and the public does not focus on that "charm". It is quite likely that in some agency their are those with some knowledge of the charm and some who are willing to act.
Example - US And British Forces are now prepared to actively invade Serbia. We have announced plans to bomb that independent country and occupy a portion of its territory on behalf of a minority which wishes to secede and join another state. Exactly the reverse of our stand in Bosnia. What is our position in Turkey or the Congo. Such a position directly in opposition to the Russian (and to a lesser extent Chinese) would seem outlandish on a risk reward basis. What are the Governments doing. Are they deliberately trying to destabilize Russia which will be humiliated or forced to act? Some people may have a better insight into what really is happening than those of us on the outside and perhaps we are seeing a shadow cast by a battle we do not fully understand.
-- Tony Lawrence