Hack for satelitte radio

The researchers also remarked that the introduction of encryption has a correlated cost to consider, such as implementing or upgrading systems to allow encryption and training staff on the use of the equipment.

The software was used by hackers in Iraq and Afghanistan to capture unencrypted video feeds of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs. The software was used to access data broadcast by satellites. The news created a lot of noise in the military, for it is normal to expect the highest level of security in military equipment, including communication encryption.

The fix of the flaw added cost to the military program, but the greatest menace from the eavesdropping of the videos was represented by the disclosure of locations of military areas under military surveillance and of course the patterns followed by drone used for reconnaissance activities.

Figure 5 — SkyGrabber home page. Hijacking is the unauthorized use of a satellite for transmission, or seizing control of a signal, such as a broadcast, and replacing it with another.

The data transmitted could be acquired eavesdropping by attackers who could also modify it in transit spoofing. Attacks against Internet data connections and media broadcasts are very common. It is unclear if the illegal transmissions were possible due an attack against satellites or Internet-connected.

The lack of detail provided in reports led many security experts to believe that the first hypothesis was most probable. Satellite control is considered very difficult to implement because security measures to protect satellites are very effective against these intentional attacks. Despite the high level of security the menace must be properly approached. An attacker could exploit a flaw in the command and control of commercial satellites, such as VSAT hubs, to compromise also military satellite systems.

The best known of alleged takeovers of satellite control occurred in and In particular, a serious attack was observed in when hackers obtained the control of the NASA Terra EOS earth observation system satellite for 2 minutes in June and for another 9 minutes in October.

Unlike the Terra OS incident, this hack did not see control taken away, but access was anyway gained. One of the most classic examples of satellite control attack is the exploitation of the vulnerability of GPS systems, a technology widely used today in commercial and military sectors. Unlike the case of jamming of GPS signals, in spoofing the targeted receivers are deceived. These attacks are difficult to detect and can be conducted in numerous sectors, from transportation to financial environments.

During the risk assessment, numerous countermeasures that have been classified for their implementation have been evaluated. Principal countermeasures implemented in software on GPS receivers are:. Some of the above attacks are difficult to conduct because they require sophisticated and expensive hardware, such as multiple antennas or a high-grade inertial measurement unit IMU. The most efficient countermeasure against these attacks is the adoption of signal encryption; the receiver and transmitter use mutual authentication processes to avoid interferences from external sources.

Unfortunately, these techniques, while compatible with a classic GPS, require more powerful hardware and systems able to manage the overhead introduced by authentication procedures.

For this reason, encryption is limited to the military sector. In our imagination, the use of GPS systems is related to the concepts of position and route. It is documented that these systems are used in aviation, marine, and ground transportation to indicate the way forward in the absence of other references. The GPS technology is also used in other areas, from environmental control to the financial sector. A possible attack on GPS systems would impact many sectors with serious consequences.

Since December the Department of Homeland Security has alerted on the risks of possible attack; it also documented that countermeasures, including monitoring the absolute and relative GPS signal strength, monitoring the satellite identification codes and the number of signals received, and checking the time intervals between the received signals can be used to guard against spoofs.

Extremely interesting is the impact that a GPS system can have on the financial world, where the accuracy of measuring time on a global scale and the synchronization between the various time zones, an operation made possible with the use of the GPS technology, are considered crucial.

The main trading systems use GPS to synchronize each other and an attack could even cause a block to trading. A typical attack can be addressed with the intent to sabotage the times on one of the global stock exchanges; it could cause a block of the activities once the automated trading systems notice the anomaly. It happened in during the Flash Crash of 2.

Imagine the effect of a misalignment of a few milliseconds between the various trading systems: Criminals could exploit this mismatch to have advance knowledge of the value of any trade, which would be a disaster for the stock exchange. Fortunately, so far no serious attack has been recorded but we are seeing evidence of basic spoofing, likely carried out by rogue individuals or small groups of criminals. VLC Media Player. MacX YouTube Downloader. Microsoft Office YTD Video Downloader.

Adobe Photoshop CC. VirtualDJ Avast Free Security. WhatsApp Messenger. Talking Tom Cat. Clash of Clans. The largest user of the Iridium network is the Pentagon.

It's that it has no security. Originally designed in the s, the Iridium network was obsolete by the time it was launched in Iridium pager traffic is sent in cleartext by default, and most pager traffic remains unencrypted. Despite this, an Iridium internal PowerPoint slide deck marked "Confidential" released by WikiLeaks in boasted that "the complexity of the Iridium air interface makes the challenge of developing an Iridium L-Band monitoring device very difficult and probably beyond the reach of all but the most determined adversaries.

Frequency shifts as satellites go overhead have historically made it difficult to capture Iridium traffic. But with cheap, ubiquitous software-defined radio—like the rad1o badge or HackRF —eavesdropping becomes trivial. Pager message channel traffic is stronger, and up to 50 percent of pager traffic can be collected in this manner. Soldering an off-the-shelf GPS or Iridium pager antenna to the software-defined radio enables maximum reception.

Once collected, the data needs to be analyzed for Iridium traffic. The satellite radio service recently launched a PC-based service, but the computer has to be connected to the Internet for it to function.

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