"Hackers Figured Out 3 separate Ways to Break Into US Air Force Satellites, And Won up to $50K For Doing it"
Hackers recently managed to break into a US Air Force satellite in orbit and took home prizes of up to $50,000 for exposing the vulnerabilities. Italian team "mHACKeroni" were the winners of the US Space Force annual "Hack-A-Sat" competition, which took place at the hacker international conference DEF CON in Las Vegas on Friday and Saturday. The event was designed to figure out gaps in US cyber defenses before they can be exploited by rival states like Russia and China. For the first time, the hackers were asked to attack a real satellite in space, the US Air Force Moonlighter, which was deployed specifically for the event. Five teams were picked out of more than 700 applicants to strategically hack into the satellite. The participants aimed to break in and build a data link to the satellite while keeping competing teams out. The Italian team beat last year's winners, Poland-based "Poland Can Into Space." They came second and won $30,000, while the UK-US joint team "jmp fs:[rcx]" took $20,000 home. While the event had a decidedly fun-and-games tone to it, it reflects a serious and growing security threat. Satellite hacking can cause real geopolitics problems.