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Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

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Re: Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

#11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extremely easy to convince population that state X is an evil, looming threat if state X is actually doing evil, looming, and threatening things for decades on no end. Russia could have stopped at any moment. Can still stop at any moment. They could have single-handedly undermined Europe's trust in the States, years before the orange-in-charge did, merely by not starting an invasion. Their choice. Their FA, now they…

>> if state X is actually doing evil, looming, and threatening things for decades on no end. This sounds like a description of the United States to me...

Whataboutism and deflection, the favorite tool of Kremlin apologists.

Re: Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> if state X is actually doing evil, looming, and threatening things for decades on no end. This sounds like a description of the United States to me...

Whataboutism and deflection, the favorite tool of Kremlin apologists.

Bien sur!

Re: Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

#14
post #12

“Sensitive” satellites have unencrypted command channels?!?! Even with narrow transmission angle that seems like a bold strategy Encoding sensitive message is a thing since dark ages

Yes, this is pretty standard, even in military contexts.

For example, military aircraft ACARS communications are often entirely in plaintext, and don't forget the famous "Predator drone video feed intercepted via $26 software" incident: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB126102247889095011

However, that's only the data they forward, and this can be more or less trivially fixed at several layers, since many of these communication satellites are just "bent pipes" that often don't even digitally demodulate what they receive before frequency-shifting and rebroadcasting it.

Authentication is a bit more challenging; interesting things can happen even when traffic itself is encrypted, such as Brazilean truckers using your expensive military communications satellite as a football chat room: https://www.wired.com/2009/04/fleetcom/

Beyond payload encryption/authentication, satellite operational commands (e.g. engine and inertia wheel control, power management etc.) should have been encrypted for decades, though (and are one of the few explicitly carved out exemptions to otherwise strict "no encryption on amateur radio bands" regulations), so these claims about "software kill commands" seems very worrying.

Re: Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

#15
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Extremely easy to convince population that state X is an evil, looming threat if state X is actually doing evil, looming, and threatening things for decades on no end. Russia could have stopped at any moment. Can still stop at any moment. They could have single-handedly undermined Europe's trust in the States, years before the orange-in-charge did, merely by not starting an invasion. Their choice. Their FA, now they…

>> if state X is actually doing evil, looming, and threatening things for decades on no end. This sounds like a description of the United States to me...

Ah, the good ol "And you are lynching N-----s!" defense. Supremely topical for discussing Russia's dickery.

Re: Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

#17
post #14
post #12

“Sensitive” satellites have unencrypted command channels?!?! Even with narrow transmission angle that seems like a bold strategy Encoding sensitive message is a thing since dark ages

Yes, this is pretty standard, even in military contexts. For example, military aircraft ACARS communications are often entirely in plaintext, and don't forget the famous "Predator drone video feed intercepted via $26 software" incident: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB126102247889095011 However, that's only the data they forward, and this can be more or less trivially fixed at several layers, since many of these commu…

During the Falklands War some of the UK's European allies intercepted transmissions from Soviet spy satellites that allowed the location of the Argentinian fleet to be identified - this information was passed to the UK.

Re: Russia 'intercepts Europe's key satellites'

#20
post #19

Russia is a terrorist state. Nothing more, nothing less.

TBF, Russia does have something more. It is a terrorist state with a gas station

Venezuela has more oil than Russia and yet it's irrelevant because the US actually enforces sanctions against Venezuela.
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