Imagine If Satellites Got Hacked

You might think the view outside our planet looks like this. But really, it looks more like this. There are more than 2,000 satellites orbiting Earth right now. And there are about to be a lot more. Endless entertainment. Non-stop communications. And unlimited information. Everything you need, in an instant.

Unless In 1729, Sir Isaac Newton theorized that if you loaded a cannon on top of a high mountain at the North Pole, and fired it at precisely the right height, angle, and speed, the cannonball would enter Earth's orbit, and be able to circle the entire planet without falling back down. Of course, Newton's hypothesis was centuries before the advent of space-bound rockets. But it was his experiments that eventually lead to Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, being launched on October 4th, 1957.

Since Sputnik, it's almost like humans have become addicted to satellites. But how couldn't we? It's thanks to satellites that we have television, GPS, accurate weather and climate monitoring, instant credit card authorization, and much, much more. By the year 2025, up to 1,100 satellites could be launching every year. But as our reliance on satellites grows, so do the risks.

There are a lot of smart people in the world, and not all of them act with the best intentions. If hackers hijacked every satellite, could they effectively shut down our planet? Hacking satellites isn't as uncommon as you might think. And it's not that hard to do. That's because a lot of satellites have limited memory and processing capabilities, so they don’t use data encryption. What’s more, the satellites are made with off-the-shelf technology, to make production costs cheaper. Hackers can analyze the parts used, so they understand how the satellites are made.

Vulnerabilities like these might explain how hackers were able to get control of the Terra EOS satellite for 9 minutes in 2008. Though the hackers never moved the satellite, they could have easily caused a lot of damage. If hackers got control of all our satellites, it probably wouldn't take us very long to notice. They could jam all our signals, and wreak havoc on our infrastructure.

Your TV and radio would stop working, and so would electricity grids, transportation systems, and water networks. GPS and remote communication systems would fail, making it harder to organize a coordinated response, while also scaring the shit out of every pilot in the sky! If the hackers had militant ambitions, they'd have control over every armed drone in flight. That could be quite a big arsenal. The internet wouldn't cut out immediately, but we'd notice a gradual slowdown before it ground to a halt. Any computerized systems would need to be switched to manual back-up systems.

Amid the chaos, governments would have to act fast to implement emergency measures, since communications, transportation, power, and computer systems would be severely disrupted. But what kind of emergency measures could we fall back on, when there was nothing to prevent hackers from hijacking our satellites in the first place? Despite our growing reliance on satellites, there aren't any cyber security standards for satellites, and there is no worldwide governing body that regulates and ensures cyber security.

Even if the standards were developed, there are no mechanisms in place to enforce them. So for now, it looks like it's every man for themselves. Don't worry, it doesn't fall on you to protect the world's satellites from hackers, but you are responsible for your own personal online protection.

At the end of the day, the more we rely on online activity and other satellite-powered technologies, the more we need to protect them. Satellite operators can have their communications hop between frequencies, so it's harder for a hacker to jam their communications. We might also want to build satellites with tougher materials to prevent electromagnetic interference. This would protect them from cyber attacks and from natural phenomena. It is much more expensive to produce secure satellites, but I'd say the upfront cost is worth it compared to the consequences we just mentioned.

While satellites have been hacked thousands of times in the past, it would be a pretty big undertaking to hijack over 2,000 satellites at once. So while this scenario may be unlikely, it doesn't mean that we're out of the woods when it comes to satellite disasters.