A satelille dish
Researchers spy on U.S. and Mexican military using a $185 satellite dish
It is widely believed that satellite companies securely transmit information, but a new study has caused an urgent rethink.
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A study released on 13 October by researchers at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Maryland shows that with just a $185 satellite and a few other pieces of equipment, anyone can spy on transmitted military information.
A costly assumption
In a paper titled “Don’t Look Up: There Are Sensitive Internal Links in the Clear on GEO Satellites”, the researchers said the only security measure satellite companies have is the assumption that no one will ever try to check what they are transmitting.
Aaron Schulman, a UCSD professor and co-lead of the study said:
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“They assumed that no one was ever going to check and scan all these satellites and see what was out there. That was their method of security. They just really didn’t think anyone would look up.”
All they needed to spy on the transmitted data was a $185 satellite dish, a $140 roof mount with a $195 motor, and a $230 tuner card, with a total cost of roughly $750 installed on a university building in La Jolla, San Diego.
They gathered information such as phone calls, texts, in-flight Wi-Fi data from airline passengers, and signals from electric utilities, and even U.S. and Mexican military and law enforcement communications.
Specifically, the team obtained unencrypted military information transmitted from US military sea vessels as well as information on narcotics trafficking from Mexican military and law enforcement.
Civilian victims include Walmart-Mexico, Santander Mexico, Banjercito, T-Mobile, AT&T Mexico, and Telmex, as well as ATMs.
Alarm sounded
After the alarming discovery, the researchers were benevolent enough to notify the affected parties, some of which said they are already working on a fix.
They also confirmed that a fix has already been deployed for T-Mobile and Walmart, which they highly advised.
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