Satellite Security Breached: Hackers Pocket $50K for Exploiting US Air Force Defenses

 

An impressive security exercise was conducted during the annual “Hack-A-Sat” competition within the US Air Force during which hackers managed to successfully compromise a satellite in orbit. MHACKeroni, an Italian team that emerged as the winner of the competition, won a prize of $50,000 for the discovery of vulnerabilities within the satellite’s network systems which allowed them to reveal the vulnerabilities. 
To identify gaps in the US cyber defense against potential threats from countries like Russia and China, a hacking competition is being held at the DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas this week. 
Moonlighter, a small cubesat named after NASA’s ionosphere, was developed by NASA’s Aerospace Corporation at the request of NASA’s Defense Research Laboratory. The small satellite was launched into space along with a cargo payload for the International Space Station on June 5, 2023, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.  
An air force satellite, the US Air Force Moonlighter, was the target of a hacker challenge this year in the form of attacks on a real satellite in space. In the program, five teams were selected out of over 700 applications to establish a data link between the satellite and the ground station, while keeping other teams at bay by establishing a strategic hack into the satellite.
This article has been indexed from CySecurity News – Latest Information Security and Hacking Incidents

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