Are Asian satellites being attacked by Stuxnet?
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During the second half of 2010 all three Asian space powers – China, India and Japan – suffered major satellite failures. Each failure is significant, but for different reasons. At the same time, it must be emphasized that satellite failures happen rarely.
What makes the loss of India’s Insat-4B in early July – the first Asian satellite to fail – so important is the possibility that the satellite fell victim to deliberate act of sabotage as the result of a cyber attack. This involves the very malicious “Stuxnet” worm.
In late August, the Japanese government reported that it lost its only operational synthetic aperture radar (SAR)-equipped surveillance satellite. Japan still maintains a fleet of three optical spy satellites. So, in bad weather or when night comes, Japan cannot conduct its own satellite surveillance operations.
Here again a power supply failure was the primary contributor to the satellite malfunction in question. Was there a Stuxnet connection? Thus far, malevolent software or a worm has not been mentioned as a potential source of the problem. But in late 2010, it cannot be ruled out entirely.
In early September, Chinasat-6A also known as Zhongxing 6A, ZX 6A, Sinosat-6, or Xinnuo 6 suffered a helium pressurization problem immediately after launch. This affected the operation and control of the satellite’s onboard fuel tank. For its owner, China Satellite Communications Corp of Beijing, it means that uncertainty about the operational status and projected life span of this new satellite is going to linger for some time.
The vast majority of satellites perform solidly, round-the-clock in a reliable fashion that is a source of pride for their builders. Thus, these lost Asian satellites represent the exception not the rule. Still, whether viewed as the victims of isolated mishaps or not, these errant satellites still send out powerful signals.
Current theories dictate that Stuxnet was designed to interfere with Iran’s nuclear program.
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Scott, Holte Ender. Holte Ender said: RT @madmike1 Are Asian satelites being attacked by Stuxnet? http://bit.ly/bH57gE […]
Extremely fascinating stuff. To get this kind of embedded attack, I suspect that it is a hardware related microcode and that’s why they can’t find it.
To explain, microprocessors have something called microcode that is embedded by hardware design in the chip. Not only does the microcode perform certain tasks, it’s used as a copyright tool to prevent cloning.
They may be able to copy the mask used for the chip but would-be counterfeit thieves cannot determine the microcode contents without destroying the chip itself.
Such a microcoded worm would be IMPOSSIBLE to determine but could be designed to trigger off seemingly innocuous events such as a group of instructions or timing of events.
The victims could look at the software instructions as perfectly valid but that is the trigger.
Call it the embedded Manchurian Candidate.
There was a great recent article in Slate about the Stuxnet worm and how USB drives are perfect vehicles for spreading it and other viruses.
Computers not connected to the internet seem to be the target, that would be difficult to do.