Tag Archive for: satellites

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites hacked by $25 homemade device


A $25 hacking tool that can seemingly breach Starlink’s internet terminals has been revealed by a security researcher.

As reported by Wired and Gizmodo, Lennert Wouters, who works at Belgian university KU Leuven, showcased how to infiltrate the satellite dishes at the Black Hat Security Conference.

A Starlink dish next to an RV.
SpaceX

For reference, Starlink was started by Elon Musk with the aim of providing internet connections around the world. By launching 3,000 satellites into orbit, the company has attracted over 500,000 subscribers.

However, Wouters has now found a way to hack into the dishes due to various hardware vulnerabilities. If left exposed, this would give threat actors free rein to access Starlink’s system and then run custom code on the network’s devices.

In order to find any exploits within the satellite dish’s software, Wouters purchased a dish and attached his hacking device onto it. The tool itself was formed via a custom circuit board (modchip), with the price of the overall parts required for the device costing just $25.

The homemade printed circuit board (PCB) is then capable of shorting the system, albeit temporarily, via a fault injection attack — this method, or glitch, was used to circumvent the security measures Starlink has in place.

After revealing the hack at his presentation, Wouters released the tool on GitHub, which gives a breakdown on how to perform the attack itself.

Starlink was made aware of the security defects last year by Wouters himself, and even paid the researcher for his efforts via its bug bounty scheme.

Even though parent company SpaceX patched the vulnerabilities at the time — prompting Wouters to modify the modchip — it seems the core issue cannot be resolved without a new model of the main chip being produced. As such, he stated that every user terminal associated with Starlink is currently exposed.

A public update was confirmed to be in the works by Starlink, but Wouters stressed that the nature of the company’s operations exposes them either way. “The widespread availability of Starlink User Terminals (UT) exposes them to hardware hackers and opens the door for an attacker to freely explore the network,” he said.

“Our attack results in…

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“China Is Watching” – With AI-Powered Satellites & Thousands Of Cameras, Can Beijing Strike Key US, UK Targets With Pinpoint Accuracy?


Last month, Fraser Sampson, Britain’s Commissioner for Biometrics and Surveillance Cameras, wrote to Cabinet Minister Michael Gove to convey his concerns about the dominance of Chinese video surveillance equipment in Britain.

He said he had “become increasingly concerned at the security risks presented by some state-controlled surveillance systems covering our public spaces.”

Two Chinese companies, Hikvision and Dahua, have grabbed a huge share of Britain’s CCTV market. While both, Hikvision, which has revenues of $9.3 billion, and Dahua, whose revenues are $3.7 billion, are private companies but they have major shareholders with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Also, Hikvision is known to be controlled by China Electronics Technology Group Ltd. (CETC), one of the major Chinese military-industrial groups, and is China’s largest electronics defense contractor. Under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, all military-industrial groups have to obey the orders of the regime.

Tiangong_Space_Station-China
File Image: Tiangong Space Station – China

Thousands Of Cameras In Britain

The UK-based campaign group Big Brother Watch sent 4,500 freedom of information (FoI) requests to public bodies asking whether they had Hikvision or Dahua cameras employed on their premises.

Of the 1,300 who responded, 800 confirmed that they did, including nearly three-quarters of councils, 60% of schools, half of NHS trusts and universities, and nearly a third of police forces.

Moreover, Big Brother Watch found that there are 164,000 Hikvision cameras and 14,000 Dahua cameras in public spaces apart from the government bodies.

Reports suggest that many of these cameras have advanced features such as microphones, the capacity for facial and gender recognition, and distinguishing between people of different racial groups.

hypersonic
File Image: Hypersonic Missile

Some cameras can also analyze behavior, such as detecting if a fight might be breaking out. Others can even judge moods, track via heat-sensing, and learn behavior patterns to highlight any unusual activity.

Backdoors Discovered In Chinese-Made Cameras

Serious security flaws have been detected in the past in cameras produced by both of these companies, which could…

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China Claims its System Can Detect Security Flaws in Orbiting Satellites: Report


Cyber warfare has become a regular fixture in recent conflicts. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for example, has been accompanied by a series of relentless cyber attacks targeting public, private and military infrastructure.

In a paper published in a domestic journal in March, lead project scientist Liu Bin reportedly wrote that “the cybersecurity arms race in space has intensified” and that China’s space programme faces a “severe threat.”

“For example, the US Space Force has established Space Delta 6, a space cyber combat brigade. The US Air Force and the National Security Agency are also developing space cyber weapons,” they added.

United States Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, announced on Monday, 18 April, that the US will no longer conduct anti-satellite (ASAT) missile tests which involve using ground-based missiles to destroy satellites in orbit.

In certain conditions, it is possible for hackers to interfere with or gain control of a satellite – for example, by breaking into a ground station or tampering with a user terminal and sending malicious inputs.

This would require meticulous planning and inside knowledge. Hackers have previously damaged components and held satellites hostage through ground stations, reports suggest.

The hardware and software used in modern satellites is proprietary and the details aren’t revealed to the public. Communication and security protocols are also kept secret.

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Hacking Collectives Hit Russian Satellites, Media and State Websites


The cyberwar is ratcheting up. 

The Ukrainian call to arms sent out by Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov for volunteers around the globe to hack Russian targets has been answered in large part by the loose collective of hackers known as Anonymous. Now, other cyber warriors are now joining the effort. A group known as Network Batallion 65 claims that it has breached the control center of Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos. 

Space Wars

NB65’s infiltration of Roscosmos has cut off Russia’s ability to control its spy satellites. The group of hackers rotated credentials to access the satellite data and shut down the company’s servers, rendering real-time satellite imaging and vehicle monitoring unavailable.  

“Have a nice Monday fixing your spying tech,” NB65 said in a Twitter post. “Glory to Ukraine.”

Rebels Witha Cause

While Anonymous has been active on the global cyber stage since as early as 2003,  targeting the Church of Scientology and spearheading the Occupy Wall Street movement, the members of hacking collectives have largely been rebels without a cause in recent years. That changed with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

NB65 seems to be united in its protest of the war. The group carried out a data dump Sunday of more than 40,000 files it collected from Russia’s Nuclear Safety Institute. 

“We don’t have the capacity to translate this many Russian documents, so enjoy and let us know what you find,” the group said.

Anonymous is Everywhere

Meanwhile, Anonymous has been relentless in its attacks on Russian websites and state-backed news outlets, claiming over 300 successful breaches. 

The group targeted state news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti, and the websites of news outlets Kommersant, Izvestiya, and Forbes Russia over the weekend, throttling connections, knocking out servers, and posting anti-war messages on the companies’…

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