By Kevin Coleman
Defense Tech Chief Cyber War Correspondent
In a recent government survey of more than 100,000 people across the U.S., 40 percent reported no broadband or high-speed access to the Internet, while 30 percent said they have no Internet access at all. Satellite broadband delivery is seen to be a quick and economical solution to this problem.
While the satellite broadband market slowed in 2009 because of the poor economy, it still increased. The market continues to expand after U.S. regulators outlined the national broadband plan that allows satellite operators to use their radio spectrum for Internet traffic. That is why cyber security professionals are so concerned about the convergence of cyber space and space.
Its becoming increasingly evident that any future war between modern militaries would be both a space war and a cyber war, in fact, they would be one and the same. Russia, China, and the U.S. have all stated they don’t want a space war, but are all preparing for one if one occurs.
That sounds so familiar – oh wait a minute, didn’t Russia, China and the U.S. say the same thing about cyber war? Yes, they did. Satellites in geostationary orbits provide broadband connectivity to businesses and customers. Those satellites and their computer control ground stations present a viable target for offensive cyber actions. A hacker could disrupt or interfere with satellite control communications and could disrupt the delivery of broadband services. In the absence of such command signals, a satellite would malfunction.
Worldwide attention focused on China’s successful anti-satellite missile test. While military officials question the scale and progress of the Chinese anti-satellite program, one has to wonder if China has already tested their anti-satellite cyber weapon. Military leaders are all too aware of the convergence of space and cyber space. An increasing percentage of military operations occur in cyber space and are integrated with and dependent on communication satellite systems in outer space.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Kevin is right. Space War may be even easier than you think.
It looks like many satellite internet providers have the same problem as the predator drones – unencrypted communications. For about $30 in hardware, Spanish cybersecurity researcher Leonardo Nve recently demonstrated how easy it was to access satellite ISP's. He had this to say on Forbes.com:
"Anyone can do it: phishers or Chinese hackers … it's like a very big Wi-Fi network that's easy to access."
(http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/02/hackers-cybercri…
Satellite ISP providers really need to step up. Scary stuff…
Ptsfp
cyberarms.wordpress.com
Security issues aside, satellite broadband has another potential gotcha–latency. Geosynchronous orbit is far enough away that signals take a quarter second up and a quarter second back, which means a one second best case scenario round trip. Not that big a deal if you're sending an email, but if you're driving a Predator or doing voice comms it's gonna hurt.
Of course, you can get around this problem by flying an expensive constellation of LEO satellites, but that's… expensive.
Thats the least of the problems… The irony is that most satellites are running updatable software, software that probably has the same multitude of unknown security holes/bugs as most legacy software. What is preventing someone with a sat dish exploiting them ?? The effects could be as effective as an ASAT.
Better, just lock in a roll command to orient the satellite's receiving antenna array away from earth and so much for that satellite until they figure out how to bounce a signal to it. This must be a sat operator's worst nightmare, people chatting about how to take down his baby and how easy it could be done.
The world is not really expiriencing the first cyber war. The reason I say this is that, while yes, we have the ability to transmit our words over thousands of miles in the blink of an eye,
John has a good point, what if the Satellites are infected with a Botnet. It would push the virus down to all of it's clients.
It wouldn't have to be a ISP either, what if it were a telcom sat? Could the cellphone network be infected via satellite? Something like the simulated "Cyber Shockwave" where smart phone apps were hacked.
Crawdad2k probably had the best idea, just roll the thing, lol.
Ptsfp
why does cyber = space? is that really where all the internet activity flows??
Survey conducted by who and for what purpose? What's the quality of data? Its irresponsible journalism to quote from a undefined source, or a source that has not been vetted.
Until the source and the purpose is known I cast significant doubt on the statistics being quoted. Was this done by some ambitious CoX cable rep after making 10 cold calls to consumers in the desert of Arizona? Or Posssibly it was made by Verizon in response to an RFP?
Bad Journalism and shame on Military News.