Starlink, one of Elon Musk's companies, has already launched some 3000 small satellites to provide Internet to places where connections would be difficult. Thousands of satellites still need to be launched, but some of the components are already being hacked.
A Belgian researcher, Lennert Wouters, has managed to modify the receiving terminal using a small board with chips to bypass Starlink's security protections and access blocked parts of the system.
The researcher explained his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. For its part, Starlink has been releasing software updates to make access to these vulnerable system parts more difficult, although, according to him, Attacks are still possible although it is more complicated to carry them out.
It is important to fix these security flaws at these very early stages in the maturity of Starlink, to prevent major security catastrophes in the future, says the researcher. Fortunately, physical access to one of the terminals is needed to modify them, and Starlink emphasizes its boot system, which they claim is secure.
In addition, they insist to users “normales” that they should not worry or take any action regarding it.
Fountain: Wired
Image: Flickr of Official SpaceX Photos