The Race to Secure Satellites: How Hackers Could Bring Down Our Global Infrastructure
As our world becomes increasingly dependent on technology, the satellites that orbit our planet are essential to maintaining our way of life. They facilitate the critical communications, navigation, and financial transactions that we take for granted every day. However, these networks are vulnerable to a range of threats, including intense geomagnetic storms, space debris collisions, and cyber-attacks.
On June 6th, a SpaceX rocket launched a US government Moonlighter satellite, designed to mitigate some of these hazards. Five ethical hacker teams at the Hack-A-Sat 4 contest in Las Vegas will attempt to hijack the Moonlighter, exposing its vulnerabilities and winning a $50,000 prize. The goal is to address the problem before it becomes a catastrophe.
The Risks of Vulnerable Satellites
Satellites are no longer the exclusive domain of nation-states. More and more, private companies are dominating the space industry as launch costs come down and satellite sizes get smaller. Last year, the United States launched 1,796 objects into space, 32 times more than in 2000 as commercial applications continue to grow. While this brings a wealth of benefits, it also increases the risk of cyberattacks on civilian and military satellites.
The world has already witnessed attacks on this infrastructure. Last year, hackers launched a malware attack that disrupted the communications of thousands of broadband users in Ukraine, as well as in Poland, Italy, and Germany, and affected thousands of wind turbines. Cyberattacks on satellites could potentially be used in conflicts to disrupt communication, navigation, and surveillance vital to military strategies. These attacks could be carried out by private entities or nation-states, and the challenge of preventing them is immense.
The Three Main Ways to Hack Satellites
According to cybersecurity experts, there are three main ways hackers can target satellites:
1. Target the ground infrastructure: the most accessible but also the most protected attack surface. Hackers can aim to intercept wireless communications between ground stations and satellites or spoof them.
2. Hack the satellite components: building or exploiting security backdoors in the satellite components and tracking the bird in orbit can be done as well—an example is when hackers launched a malware attack to disrupt more than ten thousand computers at Israel’s electrical authority.
3. Using social engineering: People working in satellite companies could be tricked into revealing passwords or other classified information.
Mitigating the Risks
Protecting critical satellite infrastructure is essential. Viasat, the satellite company targeted in last year’s Ukrainian attack, and other satellite companies are learning lessons and strengthening their defences. Constant vigilance is required, and rapid response teams must be ready to re-establish control if a system is compromised. However, anyone who claims perfect security is either lying or doesn’t know what they’re talking about, according to Craig Miller, government systems president at Viasat.
The Hacker Community’s Role in Securing Satellites
Although hacking has earned a reputation for being malicious, ethical hackers (white hat hackers) have a crucial role in securing critical global satellite infrastructure. Ethical hackers using crowdsourced security are essential in uncovering vulnerabilities, finding solutions and creating better practices that can be shared with the broader community.
In Conclusion
While satellite technology provides the world with many benefits, it’s also vulnerable to potential attacks from both cybercriminals and nation-states. As global dependence on technology and its networks continue to grow, it is essential that the industry acts to secure the satellite infrastructure effectively. Ethical hackers have an essential role in protecting our satellite networks, but we must remain vigilant and continue to enhance our security measures.
Summary:
Satellites have become essential components of our global infrastructure, but they are vulnerable to cyberattacks. The three main ways hackers can target satellites are on-ground infrastructure, hacking satellite components, and social engineering. Private companies have increasingly dominated the satellite industry, which has increased its vulnerability to attacks. Viasat, the satellite company targeted in last year’s Ukrainian attack, and other satellite companies are strengthening their defences. However, ethical hackers or white hat hackers are essential for discovering vulnerabilities and creating better practices for the broader community to enhance security measures.
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Billions of people will fare badly if the satellite communication networks that surround our planet ever collapse. Cell phones will stop chirping, navigation systems will crash, television screens will go dark, and financial transactions will fail. The three most likely ways this could happen are: an intense geomagnetic storm resulting from a solar flare like the one that occurred in 1859, known as the Carrington event; a cascade collision of space debris, called the Kessler effect; or a deliberate cyber attack.
On Sunday, a SpaceX rocket took off from Cape Canaveral with a special payload designed to mitigate the latest of those hazards. On board was a US government Moonlighter satellite, described as “the first and only hacking sandbox in space.” Once the satellite is deployed, five so-called “white hat” — or ethical — teams of hackers at the Hack-A-Sat 4 contest in Las Vegas will try to hijack the Moonlighter and win a $50,000 prize for exposing its vulnerabilities. “With Moonlighter, we’re trying to address the problem before it becomes a problem,” said a project leader he told The Registry.
In truth, the problem has already arrived. Last year, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, hackers launched a malware attack against Viasat’s KA-SAT satellite. They temporarily disrupted the communications of thousands of broadband users in Ukraine, as well as Poland, Italy and Germany, where 5,800 wind turbines were also affected.
“We are all aware that the first ‘blow’ in the current Ukrainian conflict was a cyber attack on a US space company,” said Kemba Walden, America’s interim national cyber director.
Information leaked by the CIA, reported by the Financial Times this year, it warned that China was also building sophisticated cyberweapons to “deny, exploit, or hijack” enemy satellites. The United States has not disclosed its offensive capabilities in this area. But it’s not alone Chinese spy balloons Washington is worrying.
While space was the exclusive domain of nation states, private companies they are increasingly dominating the game as launch costs go down and satellite sizes get smaller. Last year, the United States launched 1,796 objects into space, 32 times more than in 2000. The lines between military and civilians have also blurred as dual-use applications, such as global positioning systems, have made commercial satellites a target. And because of the difficulties of repairing satellites in space, designers add many spare parts, increasing the “attack surfaces” that hackers can exploit.
Viasat says it has learned lessons from last year’s attack and strengthened its defences. Basic cyber hygiene is essential at every link in the communication chain (hackers gained access to a misconfigured land-based virtual private network appliance). Constant vigilance is required: the US company has been under constant attack since the beginning of the war. And rapid response teams must be ready to re-establish control if a system is compromised.
“Anyone who claims perfect security is either lying or doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” Craig Miller, government systems president at Viasat, tells me. “You have to be able to respond very quickly.”
There are three main ways to hack into a satellite, according to James Pavur, a cybersecurity engineer at Istari, a US start-up. The first target is the ground infrastructure, the most accessible but usually the most protected attack surface. Hence, hackers can aim to intercept wireless communications between ground stations and satellites or spoof them. The third, and more difficult, approach is to track the “bird in orbit” by building or exploiting security backdoors in the satellite components. So operators have to protect the entire supply chain.
Most hacking attacks are hard to track down. Only four countries have the known ability to shoot down a satellite with a rocket: the United States, China, India and Russia, although such attacks risk triggering the Kessler effect. But anyone, anywhere, anytime can hack the software.
White hat hackers are an especially valuable community in helping secure critical satellite infrastructure, says Pavur. “There is a safety through the darkness mentality. But a sufficiently motivated opponent will find an ‘exploit’,” he says. Much better to discover those vulnerabilities first and fix them than to try to take refuge in the dark.
The idea of crowdsourced security sounds like an oxymoron. But the white-hat hackers have won over the skeptics over the past decade. As software developers say: “With enough eyeballs, all bugs are superficial.” This rule can also be applied in space.
https://www.ft.com/content/d5df1e81-f126-4a48-9a42-5b4aca842dcb
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