Cyber Security In Space

[Simon_Jester]

Hm... could you expand on the hacking attempts you reference?

Are you talking about what we traditionally consider hacking (i.e. accessing computers on an enemy network or intrusively entering files onto those computers?) Or are you talking about more normal sorts of signals intelligence?

[Sea Skimmer]

I mean introducing completely fake data into the AD networks communications system, sometimes while actively cancelling out other legit track data. And direct access of airborne computers through said communications, including a number of US systems being vulnerable too it, one instance actually cited in government documents being the AH-64E could be hacked through the protocols it used to network with Blue Force Tracker. This vulnerability was claimed fixed, but it was only discovered after the an independent team was allowed to try to hack the aircraft, after all security engineering had supposedly been completed.

I agree fully with Starglider that a good AI system would be vastly more capable of avoiding vulnerabilities like this, but this would mean placing all trust in said AI system to manipulate computer code that directly controls your main weapon systems. Which is an unappealing leap to me to say the least.

[Adam Reynolds]

Yeah, actually we kinda do these days, and the US fully exploited a number of a Soviet era air defense communication networks. But omni directional and skywave radio signals are much easier to mess around with then optical systems in the first place, and there is generally a considerable lag time in this sort of process. Aka US exploited stuff used in the Yom Kippur War by the end of the 1980s. This is also why War Emergency Only modes are very important for secure communications and sensors.

Was there ever a consensus as to whether the Israelis used such tactics in 2007 against Syria? I seem to recall hearing information in both directions in that case.

[Sea Skimmer]

The 2007 claim was nonsense, certainly no elaborate Israeli secret weapon was needed. It was generated by the fact that the average pundit, published or not, is a moron who couldn't wrap their head around the fact that the Syrian air defense system doesn't cover random secret installations in out in the desert in the first place. Nor does any other country have low level coverage of wide areas of its rural hinterland. The Israelis simply flew low barely a hundred miles from Turkey to the undefended target and back and knocked out the site before the Syrians knew anything was happening. Carrying out the raid would have been easy as things go.

[Zixinus]

One thing that a spaceship battle would definitely involve is various autonomous systems spread throughout the solar system. Everything from satellites, trough communication relays to transport infrastructure. They are ripe for hacking. Imagine getting your hands on a mass driver or similar device used to shot cargo all over the solar system. You can aim it at enemy warships. Even if they can evade or defend themselves, you are still forcing them to react to your actions, something that a strategist wants.