In May, while Russia was commemorating its Victory Day, regular television broadcasts in Ukraine were disrupted by parade footage due to Kremlin-affiliated hackers seizing control of an orbiting satellite that delivers television services to Ukraine.
Ukrainian audiences were compelled to view streams of tanks, soldiers, and weaponry, serving as a message of intimidation as Moscow broadened the conflict from land, air, and sea to the vastness of outer space.
Disabling a satellite can inflict a catastrophic impact without firing a single bullet, achievable by targeting the satellite’s security software or interfering with its capacity to transmit or receive signals from Earth.
“If you can hinder a satellite’s communication capabilities, you can create a substantial disruption,” stated Tom Pace, CEO of NetRise, a cybersecurity firm dedicated to safeguarding supply chains.
“Consider GPS,” Pace remarked, who has a background in the Marines before addressing cyber issues at the Department of Energy. “Envision a scenario where a population loses that capability and the chaos it would generate.”
The potential for satellites to become targets in warfare
Currently, the space around our planet is home to over 12,000 satellites that not only facilitate communication broadcasts but also play a crucial role in military operations, navigation systems such as GPS, intelligence collection, and economic supply chains.
The essential reliance on satellites in our everyday lives has rendered them a national security risk and a target for those seeking to instigate conflict, or to deliver a psychological impact similar to the actions of hackers supporting Russia when they commandeered television signals in Ukraine.
What has led to their targeting in the Ukraine conflict?
Hackers frequently exploit the most vulnerable aspects of the software or hardware that supports a satellite or governs its communication with Earth. Even if the satellite itself is adequately secured, outdated software can expose it to potential attacks.
In 2022, as Russian forces launched an invasion of Ukraine, a cyberattack was directed at Viasat, the US-based satellite provider utilized by the Ukrainian government and military. This hack, which Kyiv attributed to Moscow, employed malware that compromised tens of thousands of modems, resulting in a significant outage that impacted large areas of Europe.
According to national security officials, Russia is in the process of developing a nuclear weapon based in space, intended to incapacitate nearly all satellites in low-Earth orbit simultaneously. This weapon would execute a physical assault that would have a cascading effect, leading to the destruction of additional satellites, while the nuclear aspect would aim to disable their electronic systems.
