One of Britain’s top scientists is calling for an international ‘community of the willing’ to prevent a potential war in space. She warns that a lack of cyber security puts us at risk.
In an exclusive interview with Future Intelligence Editor Peter Warren, Dr Lewis describes how satellites can be hacked, hijacked, jammed or “spoofed” or programmed with wrong information. State actors or terrorists are most likely to use these methods to target the critical international infrastructure of telecommunications and power supplies. Satellites can also be knocked out of their orbit by other satellites or have their security compromised by a practice known as “snuggling”. All of these intrusions could have catastrophic consequences on earth, where many of our everyday systems rely on accurate information from the hardware high above in orbit. For example, information about weather can affect air traffic control, agriculture, sporting and cultural events, commodities trading, maritime navigation and logistics. If the flow of data is interrupted, hacked or spoofed all these systems go wrong.
Legacy of insecurity
Older “legacy” satellites actually lack any kind of cyber security because they were launched before the birth of the internet. Dr Lewis says without international voluntary regulation involving commercial and state providers of satellites, the risk of hacking will become acute…
Peter Warren’s interview with Dr Patricia Lewis also appears in the PassW0rd radio show where technologists and defence experts comment on the dangers foreseen as satellites.
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