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US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

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Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#21
post #10

$14 billion 2020 budget for the USAF space portfolio[1], $50 thousand prize (split between entire team) to reveal detailed procedure to hack the USAF space portfolio. I feel like they should be a bit more generous here. [1] https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1783601/air-...

"Won the Air Force Space Security Challenge" on your resume is basically a license to k̶i̶l̶l̶ name your own salary with any reputable tech company.

The winners are certainly a potential threat to national (global?) security. What's the price of a celebrity status like that?

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#23
post #22

Would be interested in any US citizen to join our team. We have the skills, but we are all either Canadian or British, sadly. Email me at contact@exodusorbitals.com P.S. Any cybersecurity experience is an asset, but not a requirement.

Emailed

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are Canadians allowed to participate? How about Russians? What about crypto-anarchists who will never pass a military-type background check? Yes. As long as there's at least one US citizen or permanent resident on your team, and you're not a specially designated national, you're allowed to participate.

>> The Team Leader must be a U.S. citizen, must speak English and will serve as the official technical point of contact for communications with the HAS organizers. So ya, Canadians are allowed but only if the boss is a US citizen. Don't see any resident language. I make the point because some of the best satellite spotters/finders/hackers are Canadians, such Scott Tilley who was recently in the news for finding a lon…

Is there an actual problem here? Canadians benefit a lot from US Defense spending. This is not an unreasonable ask.

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Won the Air Force Space Security Challenge" on your resume is basically a license to k̶i̶l̶l̶ name your own salary with any reputable tech company.

The winners are certainly a potential threat to national (global?) security. What's the price of a celebrity status like that?

An open offer to work at the NSA?

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the one operating on 60 GHz so that it cannot be heard from the ground directly Isn't that the same frequency for ground-based 5G mmWave?

Yes. It is absorbed by moisture in the atmosphere. That limits its range, which is great if you want to setup lots of cellular towers without them interfering with each other. If 5g used a frequency that wasn't absorbed, individual towers would have to be much further apart, increasing "cell" size and limiting available bandwidth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_high_frequency

I read a paper about that. It said that 98% of the energy emitted at that frequency is absorbed by oxygen, and this was touted as a benefit, because it effectively “insulated” the towers, so they would not interfere with each other. But I am still surprised that any engineer would design a system that is only 2 percent efficient.

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It is absorbed by moisture in the atmosphere. That limits its range, which is great if you want to setup lots of cellular towers without them interfering with each other. If 5g used a frequency that wasn't absorbed, individual towers would have to be much further apart, increasing "cell" size and limiting available bandwidth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_high_frequency

I read a paper about that. It said that 98% of the energy emitted at that frequency is absorbed by oxygen, and this was touted as a benefit, because it effectively “insulated” the towers, so they would not interfere with each other. But I am still surprised that any engineer would design a system that is only 2 percent efficient.

At scale all radio is absorbed by something... mostly not your recipient's antenna.

Re: US Air Force Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-a-Sat

#30
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Won the Air Force Space Security Challenge" on your resume is basically a license to k̶i̶l̶l̶ name your own salary with any reputable tech company.

The winners are certainly a potential threat to national (global?) security. What's the price of a celebrity status like that?

People will call you POTUS for 4 years

/s

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