Hacking a Mere Drone? Up Your Ante
September 29, 2020
So many technology headlines are the stuff that science fiction is made of. The newest headline is a threat is something not only out of science fiction but also from the suspense genre says Los Angeles Air Force Base: “SMC Team Supports First Satellite Hacking Exercise.”
For a over the year, the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) experts in ground and satellite technology led a satellite hacking exercise. The event culminated in the Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-A-Sat. The Special Programs Directorate and the Enterprise Corps Cross Mission Ground and Communications cyber operations team combined their forces for the exercise:
“This challenge asked security researchers, commonly known as hackers, from across the country and around the world to focus their skills and creativity in solving cybersecurity challenges on space systems. These white-hat ethical hackers are members of the research and security communities focused on legally and safely finding vulnerabilities for many different types of systems. This challenge focused on bridging the gap between space, cyber and security communities and growing these ecosystems.”
DEF CON controlled the exercise environment so the teams could practice their skills safely and securely. The competitors explored the satellite system, including the radio frequency communications, ground segments, and satellite bus. The Hack-A-Sat was basically war games with code. The purpose was to expose the experts to new systems they otherwise might not have access to.
The teams want to practice their skills in simulations and Hack-A-Sat events in preparation for real life events. The more real life scenarios the experts experience the more prepared they are to troubleshoot system errors and emergencies.
The Hack-A-Sat event is part of the future mission to the moon and defending the
United States from enemy threats. However, if the United States can undertake these exercises, bad acting countries can as well. It would be horrible if authoritarian governments discovered how to hack US satellites. The metaphor is scary but apt: could the equivalent of a 9/11 terror attack happen by satellite hacks?
Whitney Grace, September 29, 2020
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