Suspected Chinese Hackers Briefly Took Control of U.S. Satellites

Posted 11/21/2011 at 6:15am | by Pulkit Chandna

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Unidentified hackers gave the term “cyberspace” a whole new meaning when they hacked a couple of US satellites a total of four times in 2007 and 2008. This shocking revelation came as part of a report released last week by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission(page 216). Hit the jump for more.

The four hacking incidents mentioned in the report involved the Landsat-7 and Terra EOS AM-1, both of which are earth observation satellites managed by NASA. The first incident occurred on October 27, 2007 and involved the Landsat-7, which experienced 12 minutes of “interference.”

The next one, which involved the Terra AM-1 satellite, occurred on June 20, 2008 and saw the responsible party execute all steps necessary to command the satellite. However, according to the report, no commands were issued.These "cyberspace" transgressions continued, with two more incidents taking place that year.

While the report does not directly pin the blame for these attacks on the Chinese, it stresses upon the strong possibility of there being a Chinese hand: “Chinese military writings advocate attacks on space-to ground communications links and ground-based satellite control facilities in the event of a conflict. Such facilities may be vulnerable.In recent years, two U.S. government satellites have experienced interference apparently consistent with the cyber exploitation of their control facility.”

"Satellites from several U.S. government space programs utilize commercially operated satellite ground stations outside the United States, some of which rely on the public Internet for 'data access and file transfers,' according to a 2008 National Aeronautics and Space Administration quarterly report. The use of the Internet to perform certain communications functions presents potential opportunities for malicious actors to gain access to restricted networks."