“There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear.” If you are old enough to remember television in the 1960’s and 1970’s, you remember televisions with rabbit ear antennas or listing to AM radio in your parent’s car? Those days may be returning. You may also remember a television show called The Outer Limits which began with the above opening monologue. China is well on its way to developing capabilities to hijack and sabotage enemy satellites, as part of efforts to become the pre-eminent power in space by 2045, according to leaked US documents.
The intelligence comes from the recently leaked Pentagon trove traced to a 21-year-old cyber official at the US Air National Guard. The classified CIA document states that Chinese efforts are focused on capabilities allowing it “to seize control of a satellite, rendering it ineffective to support communications, weapons, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.”
See: https://redskyalliance.org/xindustry/risky-on-line-gaming-chat-rooms
To do so, such a system would aim to impersonate legitimate signals that satellites receive from the ground and each other, tricking them into either being hijacked for remote control or to malfunction during combat, the report claimed. Such efforts would go beyond anything seen before. Russian has sought to jam the signals from low orbit Starlink satellites used by the Ukrainian military, and it also compromised Viasat routers ahead of its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In a sign of the growing strategic and military importance of satellites for communications during conflict, the Kremlin also recently warned that any cyber-attack on its own systems would be treated as an act of war.
In March 2023, US Space Force chief of space operations, Chance Saltzman, testified to Congress that China is likely developing anti-satellite technology that could be weaponized during a war. He reportedly claimed that the Chinese military has launched 347 satellites, including 35 in the past six months, capable of targeting US assets, including “grappling” satellites that could pull the USA spacecraft out of orbit.
China has launched several satellites said to be “scavengers” that are fitted with robotic arms to grab and steer space debris so that it burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere. But the Pentagon is concerned that the technology “could be used in a future system for grappling other satellites” and was therefore a concern to the US military, James Dickinson, commander of the US Space Command, told a Congress hearing in April 2023.
A notable example, the Shijian 17, launched in 2016 with a robotic arm, had over the years made a number of “unusual maneuvers” and varied its position in relation to other satellites while in geostationary orbit above the Earth, according to think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Although the Chinese developers said the Shijian 17’s mission was to test “high-orbit space debris observation technologies”, Dickinson said it had the ability to potentially take down US probes in space.
The news of China’s growing capabilities in space will also be of concern to Taiwan, which assumes that its larger neighbor will seek to disrupt its ability to communicate during a predicted invasion in the coming years.
It was reported in January 2023 that Taiwan, which China claims as its own, is looking to establish its own network of satellites and receivers to mitigate the threat and maintain internet connectivity during any conflict.
Source: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/china-developing-antisatellite/
Red Sky Alliance is a Cyber Threat Analysis and Intelligence Service organization. For questions, comments or assistance, please contact the office directly at 1-844-492-7225, or feedback@wapacklabs.com
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