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Why India Should Secure its Space and CyberSpace

by CISOCONNECT Bureau

In a recent report, China is reported to have targeted Indian satellite communications through various cyberattacks. Read on to know more about it…

Not just on land and sea, China’s expansionist plans have reportedly reached the space with Beijing carrying out ‘multiple cyber-attacks’ against Indian satellite communications. According to a report it is said that China may not be just a border threat for India. This report is relevant at a time when tension between New Delhi and Beijing is rising over military standoff in Ladakh.

The report gives a insight that while India has a limited number of counter-space capabilities, China has the ability to mount sophisticated cyber-attacks directed at ground stations by either corrupting or hijacking the systems used to control spacecraft or satellite.

The CASI Report
US-based China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI), quoted in a Times of India news report, suggested that China carried out multiple cyber-attacks against India between 2007 and 2018, including a cyber-attack against Indian satellite communications in 2017. The 142-page report also noted that between 2012 and 2018, China carried out multiple cyber-attacks against India, but focuses on one specific case.

CASI, a think-tank, supports the secretary, chief of staff of the US Air Force, the US chief of space operations, and other senior air and space leaders. It provides expert research and analysis supporting decisions and policymakers in the US Department of Defense and across the United States government.

According to the report quoted in TOI, a Chinese network-based computer attack on Jet Propulsion Laboratory “allowed full functional control” over JPL Networks. Multiple sources were quoted in the CASI report to list out some of the attacks.

However, the CASI report highlighted how China has multiple other counter-space technologies, intended to threaten adversary space systems from ground to GEosynchronous Orbit (GEO). Some of China’s counter-space capabilities include direct-ascent kinetic-kill vehicles (Anti-Satellite missiles), co-orbital satellites, directed-energy weapons, jammers and cyber capabilities.

The report added “China has investments in developing ground, air, and space-based radio frequency jammers that target uplinks, downlinks, and crosslinks involved in either control of space systems or data transmission,”

India’s Counter-Attack
The CASI report went on to add that India had also demonstrated Anti-Satellite (A-SAT) missile technology on March 27, 2019, as part of its counter-space capabilities. This equipped India with a “kinetic kill” option to destroy enemy satellites.

Times of India quoted multiple insiders as saying that ISRO hasn’t been able to pinpoint sources of cyber-attacks over the years. “Cyber threats are a given but it cannot be ascertained who are behind such attacks. We’ve systems in place to alert us and I don’t think we’ve ever been compromised,” a senior scientist was quoted, adding that “the Chinese may have tried and failed”.

Concluding Note
Counter-space activities are not unheard of. However, the study, published by China Aerospace Studies Institute, affirmed that not only has China attempted to launch cyber attacks targeted to debilitate something as critical as satellite communications, its military division, People’s Liberation Army (PLA), has also continued to acquire and commission newer technologies that are geared towards complete cyber warfare.

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