this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2025
312 points (98.4% liked)

Technology

76640 readers
2985 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
312
Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data (www.wired.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/technology@lemmy.world
22 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

https://archive.md/QMvAI

With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypted.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 30 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

There must be some additional steps. Otherwise those satellites would be overloaded by hooligans.

[–] aBundleOfFerrets@sh.itjust.works 32 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Nope, lol. These suckers are fucking ancient. There isn’t any processing, you can’t overload something that isn’t actually reading the data or using a protocol.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They still use energy, no? To relay signals on another frequency. That should come from somewhere, and also the more different signals, the more noise. And without their input frequency being regulated, there must be lots of noise.

[–] Arkthos@pawb.social 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can do this same attack on any antenna, noise can't be protocolled away. Repeating both signal and noise is a downside to bent-pipe setups.

Input frequencies are regulated via band-pass filters.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not talking about technical things, just that IRL on regulated frequencies one can do something because people using it for bullshit are legally prosecuted. Depends on wavelength, of course.

But OK, now I think I get what you are talking about.

[–] Arkthos@pawb.social 5 points 3 weeks ago

Oh. Yeah most bands used by satellites are also regulated.

[–] FE80@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Someone tell me how to join team "satellite hooligan".

[–] knightly@pawb.social 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can get a cheap SDR for a few bucks and an antenna for about the same. The rest is software and ingenuity.

[–] BD89@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is it illegal to do this? I mean they aren't being used anymore so no harm no foul right?

[–] knightly@pawb.social 2 points 3 weeks ago

The legality is questionable, but just listening is harmless.

[–] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago

Well the biggest steps I'm going to assume are having a satellite dish, knowing where to point it, knowing what to send, then hope that someone is listening. Much easier for a hooligan to throw a rock at someone or find a can of spray paint