Submission + - Russia Launched Ukraine Invasion with Hack of Thousands of Satellite Modems
An Ominous Cow Erred writes: The Washington Post reports that at the outset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian military communications, as well as that of customers across Europe, was accomplished by the compromise of tens of thousands of satellite modems provided by Viasat's KA-SAT service. Viasat is now having to replace the insecure modems for all affected customers. This raises questions about the vulnerability of other broadband services with poorly-maintained firmware on their customer network infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Zhora described the impact of the sabotage as “a really huge loss in communications in the very beginning of war.”
Dmitri Alperovitch, a cyber expert and chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator think tank, said satellite communications “have been used extensively by Ukrainian military not just for command and control of forces but also for tactical missions such as use of drones against Russian armor.”
Said Alperovitch: “We can’t know for sure, but this KA-SAT attack may have had a serious impact on degrading Ukrainian military capabilities at the outset of the war.’’
