Report: Pentagon Should Assume US Satellites Are Already Hacked

As U.S. and its allies tether more of their military operations to government and commercial satellites, they need to start taking cyber-security more seriously.

The U.S. and its allies need to double down on the cyber-security of their satellites as space infrastructure becomes ever more integral to national security, according to a recent report.

The Pentagon and other western military forces rely heavily on space-based systems to guide weapons, gather intelligence and coordinate operations around the globe, but security gaps in their satellite infrastructure threaten to bring those functions to a grinding halt or worse, researchers at the London-based think tank Chatham House found.

As adversaries like Russia and China ramp up their offensive cyber capabilities, they said the western world needs to lock down its space infrastructure against potentially crippling attacks. And in the meantime, “it would be prudent” for countries to assume their systems have already been infiltrated.

More