Military Satellites Vulnerable to Hacking

Researchers warned that many of the satellites manufactured by some of the biggest government contractors are vulnerable to several exploits from which the satellite can be exploit and hacked to disrupt military operations.

It has uncovered that there are many vulnerabilities in software and ground-based satellites manufactured by British companies Cobham and Inmarsat says security consultancy.

The U.S based computer emergency response team warned about the vulnerabilities in January.

Many of the issues were in Broadband Global Area Network. BGAN is designed to provide internet and voice connectivity for remote teams. The affected Haris BGAN satellites terminals are also by military , including NATO for tactical radio communications.



The Cobham Aviator machines could be compromised to alter satellite communications, such as the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (Acars), used by a plane.

ACARS is used to transmit vital informations such as fuel levels , it was usually used to track the movements of MH370 flight soon it disappeared. 

The manufacturers were warned about the vulnerabilities in which some of the vulnerabilities are claimed to be exploited with little technical ability , these flaws are present in the products from atleast two years.

 

Continue reading →

NSA hacked German satellites.

 

Snowden says Der Spiegel reports that NSA and GCHQ hacked and infiltrated the communications of three German satellite.The targeted satellites are satellite comms firms Stellar, Cetel and IABG which provide internet and telephone services to difficult-to- reach locations such as oil drilling platforms, refugee camps and foreign outposts of multinational corporations. According to the latest leaks from the files of Edward Snowden, fugitive ex-NSA sysadmin, GCHQ targeted 16 employees, including chief exec Christian Steffen, as well as Stellar's most important customers and partners. The spying operation was run from a jointly operated NSA/GCHQ listening station based in the UK. 

The leaked documents (which were undated) report that the spooks were able to create a comprehensive list of customers after gaining access to the servers of rival satellite comms firm Cetel. The firm's customers include non- governmental organisations as well as a "northern European country that uses Cetel to connect its diplomatic outposts to the internet," Der Spiegel reports, adding that most of Cetel's customers are in the Middle East and Africa. While there might be some anti-terrorist rationale in hacking into the networks of Stellar and Cetel and tapping into their backhaul fibre-optic communications, the justification for similar tactics against IABG look much more like economic espionage. IABG "operated the testing facility for Germany's Trans rapid super high-speed maglev train and also conducted testing on the Airbus A380 super jumbo jet and the Ariane rocket" as well as providing comms services for the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces. Earlier, the German newspaper had also reported NSA carried out mass surveillance on thousands of German citizens as well as on German Chancellor Merkel. According to the report the Chancellor use two mobile phones: BlackBerry Z10, outfitted with an encryption chip by Secusmart, for state business. And Nokia 6260 Slide for party matters. And it was this Nokia Series 40-powered Kanzler- Handy (chancellor mobile) that was pawned by the NSA.

Continue reading →

Facebook will launch drones and satellites

Facebook plans to launch a fleet of drones to out-compete the technology giant Google. In the fast growing world of IT, survival of companies depends upon the number of followers and customers. 
In a bid to increase Facebook users, the CEO Mark Zuker berg has announced in a blog post that the company has planned to launch drones which will provide the remote areas, especially of third world countries, with hassle free internet access. 
Apparently this has been decided to out-compete Google which had launched internet balloons last year in Switzerland. Last year, Facebook and other technology companies had launched internet.org to provide internet to unprivileged masses.
 Facebook is perusing its goal of connecting over 1.2 billion people to facebook before the end of the decade. Facebook has been already working hard with multiple stakeholders around the world to increase its users. Last year Facebook had teamed up with Philippines and Paraguay to increase its users in that region. 

Yet Zuckerberg believe that increasing Facebook users will also require state of Art technology. This technology includes Drones, geosynchronous satellites and infra-laser beams to provide easy and censor-free internet access to people.
 In this regard, Facebook had hired the services of experts including a five-member team that worked at British firm Ascenta, whose founders developed the Zephyr, which holds the record for the longest-flying solar- powered unmanned aircraft. Also to bring the project to fruition, Facebook has set up a Connectivity Lab that will include experts in aerospace and communication technology, from Nasa's jet propulsion lab and its Ames research center.

Continue reading →