The hackers disrupted two earth observation satellites – Landsat 7 and Terra AM-1 – on a number of occasions, according to a draft report being prepared by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission and obtained by Bloomberg.

“Such interference poses numerous potential threats, particularly if achieved against satellites with more sensitive functions. Access to a satellite‘s controls could allow an attacker to damage or destroy the satellite. An attacker could also deny or degrade as well as forge or otherwise manipulate the satellite’s transmission”, according to the draft.

Although the draft report does not finger the Chinese as the culprits, it suggests that the attacks are in keeping with Chinese military writings that advocate disabling an enemy’s space system assets, particularly ground-based infrastructure, such as ground control systems, according to Bloomberg.

Commenting on the report, Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer of Imperva, said that the assumption by the US government and military that their systems can be isolated from the public communication network is outdated.

“The latest (alleged) Landsat incident is a clear example of that. While the system is a military system operated mainly from military facilities and systems it can be accessed from a commercial station in Norway which in turn is connected to the Internet. The report hints that attack on the control system was indeed related to this commercial control system”, Shulman noted.

“This is yet another wake up call for these organizations to gradually abandon their older model and start deploying in-depth layered security into their information systems, much like the commercial organizations do. We should remember though that making this change (both mentally and logistically) is a long process given the huge scope of these systems”, he added.