A US-based China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) report has claimed that China attacked Indian satellite communications in 2017 among other counter-space activities. The 142-page report says that between 2012 and 2018, China carried out multiple cyber attacks even as the Indian Space Research Organisation maintains that its systems have not been compromised so far.
In 2012, a Chinese network-based computer attack on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) “allowed ‘full functional control’ over JPL networks,” the report says while listing out some of these attacks.
As per the report, China has multiple other counter-space technologies, including ascent kinetic-kill vehicles (anti-satellite missiles), co-orbital satellites, directed-energy weapons, jammers, and cyber capabilities, that are intended to threaten adversary space systems from ground to geosynchronous orbit (SEO).
Notably, in 2019, India had demonstrated Anti-Satellite (A-Sat) missile technology on March 27 that gave India a ‘kinetic kill’ option to destroy enemy satellites.
CASI 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 US government.
What’re the risks?
A recent US Pentagon report also said that the PLA continues to acquire and develop technologies that China could use to “blind and deafen the enemy”. Tobby Simon of Synergia Foundation, a strategic think-tank said: “…One of the biggest weaknesses ubiquitous to all satellite systems is use of long range telemetry for communication with base stations. Uplinks and downlinks are quite often transmitted through open telecom security protocols that can be compromised. We have to concede that there are no absolute air gaps in cyber security and as more private companies navigate into the industry, it would be an onerous task for them to invest in active defence.”
A 2019 report released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace also said that while India demonstrated its A-Sat interceptors, China has capabilities to mount sophisticated cyber-attacks directed at ground stations with the intent of either corrupting or hijacking the systems used to control spacecraft/satellite. “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,” the report reads.
ISRO Chairman says threat perception not unique to India
However, many say 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 said, adding that “the Chinese may have tried and failed.” ISRO chairman K Sivan has denied any direct knowledge of such an attack on Indian ground stations. “The threat perception is always there and it’s not unique to India. We are secure,” he said. He said that the country has an independent and isolated network which is not connected to the public domain, including the Internet, which has kept its systems safe.
The news comes even as the Ministry of External Affairs has raised the issue of Chinese firm Zhenhua Data Information snooping on prominent Indian leaders.
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