Falun Gong Hacks Chinese Satellite 584
maetenloch writes: "Last week Falun Gong hackers in China were able to briefly take over the Sinosat-1 satellite and broadcast a banner for several minutes on all channels of China Central Television. This was apparently repeated several time on different channels on Sunday but so far the Chinese government has imposed a news blackout on the incident. However thanks to the Internet and the millions of witnesses, word has leaked out. Surprisingly, security on satellites can be very weak - often transponders are left on when not active and will continue to rebroadcast whatever is beamed at them. It's believed that Falun Gong used a 3 meter dish antenna mounted on a vehicle to overpower the government's uplink signal. This is not the only time that satellite signals have been hacked - there was the famous 'Captain Midnight' incident in 1986 and it's believed that Iraq has been attacking Kurdish satellite tv channels for several years. Hackers have even (discreetly) made use of the U.S. Navy's FleetSatCom satellites."
Disregard the politics for a second (Score:4, Interesting)
Moments like this, along with the Anthrax outbreak last year, are beginning to define socio-political conflict in the 21st Century.
Hacked, eh? (Score:1, Interesting)
China can't keep all the news out. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Falun gong (Score:1, Interesting)
Doubtful (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm inclined to think it was some other band of kiddiez that just wanted a good cover for their actions, like the "Hacked By Chinese" incidents from last year.
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Ignorant! (Score:3, Interesting)
Not Suprised (Score:5, Interesting)
The only way you could possibly hurt a military satellite is to blast it with power... However once that's done, controlers in the NOC see it.. Null rx, and send the lat and long if the source of the spike on to whoever needs to be notified (Falcon AFB for Air Force and Army). Spikes are the only cheap and effective way of hacking, however our SSMA communications defeats that easily.. Not that much of SATCOM is SSMA, but the really important shit is.
For a truly effective hack, you'd have to jam 2 different UHF rxers (backup and primary command rxers) as well as the regular comms channels.. but with someone putting out that much power, it'd be pretty easy to find without the use of the satty anyway.
Just my 2 cents.
Who says the Falun Gong did it? (Score:4, Interesting)
Otherwise, it seems totally out of character for what is largely a peaceful group, and also one that doesn't have much in the way of financial resources. In a country where several years' worth of paychecks *may* be enough to buy you a car, it's not something you'd easily risk by pulling a stunt like this.
I'm sorry, but my BS-o-meter is registering pretty high on this one. It sounds suspiciously to me like a way for the Chinese government to legitimize their qualms with the group.
Re:Who's the "terrorist?" (Score:3, Interesting)
I doubt they will be branded as terrorists, since no harm or threat was caused by this prank. However, the government will be in its rights to question every FG member, and maybe arrest a lot of them for participation in this deed.
But the more FG does what it just did, the clearer it becomes for the West that FG is indeed what Chinese government claimed all along - an army of militants, not a health club. The hack of a satellite falls into territory of sabotage and propaganda, something that health clubs don't do.
Re:Who's the "terrorist?" (Score:5, Interesting)
Are the Falun terrorists for "hijacking" Chinese TV? Or are they rebels in a quest against the evil empire?
Insofar as they aren't practicing any actual form of terror, I'm going to vote "not terrorist."
To the best of my knowledge, they aren't...
I think, at worst, you could call them an insurgent organization. But in my book, no terror = no terrorism - and popping "falun gong is good" on the telly signal for a few seconds is not "terror" by any definition I've ever heard.
Re:China can't keep all the news out. (Score:3, Interesting)
"Also, why can't they control the internet? They own all the infrastructure, the ISPs, the cable, everything. You're not very informed to think they just can't turn off whatever they want. They block all of geocities and angelfire, and often block cnn and other news sites when some issue that is sensitive to the government is happening. Don't underestimate what a determined dictatorship can accomplish, especially when they hold all of the cards."
Another point - why does it matter if the people aren't convinced that the CCP has the right to rule? The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has all the guns, military, etc. and revolt is downright impossible.
Re:Reminds me of that scene in Hackers (Score:2, Interesting)
they may be taiwanese or falungong members... but probably not mainlanders. (Why to I think this? I've been in the Chinese tech industry for almost a decade now and I don't think that many mainlanders would see a point to hacking a site and leaving that message. They just don't have the motivation. Also, as I do follow the news both here (US) and ther (China), I'd say that some falungong or taiwan crazies have more motivation (making China look like the backwards police state that everyone seems to want to believe) than the mainlanders do)
Re:Falun Gong are terrorists. (Score:3, Interesting)
israeli occupation are NOT terrorists but freedom fighters. Do I read you
correctly?
Re:Stirring a Hornet's nest (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ignorant! (Score:3, Interesting)
Falun Gong is a cult every bit as bad as the Scientologists [xenu.net], with an emphasis on physical exercises rather than mental.
Oddly, there is a town in Wisconsin called Falun. I keep meaning to go there to see if they have a gong.
Re:Stirring a Hornet's nest (Score:2, Interesting)
It is. See all the comments about the US's almost-elected leader, Dubya. In a time when the National Guard wasn't accepting any more applications, he managed to get accepted. He then supposedly didn't actually show up for most of it.
Any cite for this? Yes he served in the NG, lots of people did, but your claim here is completely unbacked by evidence.
And yes, he's pretty much thought of as a useless coward whose daddy bought him safety and runs him like a puppet now.
Oh. That must explain the 76% approval ratings. Face it, you want people to think like this, but the fact is that 0.76 * 285,000,000 Americans disagree with you completely.
Hacked in the traditional sense, not cracked (Score:3, Interesting)
I am assuming that the Chinese are using a simple analog transmission over the transponder without any CA (conditional access/security).
If you have a big enough dish and enough power, you could get the transponder to lock to your carrier and get rebroadcast. The picture would look crappy, but it can be done.
There's no great defense against it other than implementing a secured digital transmission system where the IRDs (integrated receiver/demodualtors) do not have analog reception capability.
All the Falun Gong needed was an Earth Station anywhere in Asia that could see the bird and was willing to transmit. I doubt it was done from inside China. They'd know where all the 5+ meter dishes are in China and who was working them.
Information warfare of this type has a bit of a financial barrier to overcome to engage in, but once on the offensive, it is quite tough to defend against. The Soviet Union and Cuba were unable to stop the US radio and TV propaganda broadcasts throughout the cold war, no matter how much they spent.
Re:Ignorant! (Score:2, Interesting)
Zealots indeed.
Somebody has to bring down the butchers in Beijing. It might as well be the practitioners of a modern form of Tai Chi. Only fitting, I suppose.
Terrorist, as defined by USA PATRIOT (Score:4, Interesting)
USA PATRIOT defines domestic terrorism as activities that attempt "to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion".
Dictionary.com defines "coerce" thus: By that definition, Falun Gong are terrorists. So are all of us that marched on federal buildings attempting to use "pressure" to "compel" the DOJ to free Dmitry. Which serves as a good example of one of the many things that are wrong with USA PATRIOT.
Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the terrorist party?
Difference between USA repression and China (Score:2, Interesting)
The first kind of freedom is what we have in the USA. It is the freedom of the majority to be able to change things when the majority is dissatisfied. The American colonies didn't have that under british rule.
The second kind of freedom is personal freedom which we no longer have (or maybe never really had) in the USA. This is the freedom to do whatever I want as long as it hurts no one. For example, prostitution hurts no one, but is illegal in the USA except in rural nevada. Gambling used to be illegal most places (because it was morally wrong), then the majority of americans decided it was morally okay and now we have it just about everywhere. The war on drugs is really a war against a minority of US citizens and has more in comon with a "war on high prices" than a real war.
Freedom of religion? You have the freedom to practice some religions, but not others. For example, if you are a mormon and part of your religion involves polygamy, you are forbidden from practicing it. Why? Only because the majority of americans are against it for no reason that is obvious to me.
Alcohol used to be illegal because it was "morally wrong". Now it is okay. (I guess God changed his mind.)
Slavery used to be legal. Jim Crow used to be legal. Jim Crow only changed because the majority changed their minds. Slavery was only outlawed because the civil war was going on so the south didn't get to vote on it.
If you are an atheist, you are basically demonized by the majority and by the current government. I can't turn around without some bozo telling me about Jesus. (Guess what, I have heard your stupid ideas already - get a clue.)
There was a time when there was "voluntary" prayer in school. My father was severely beaten regularly after school for not participating in this "voluntary" prayer.
That's all Christians are - a gang of thugs who will use whatever violent, branwashing techniques they can to further their idiotic ideas.
I would be for respecting their freedom if they would respect mine, but they won't and they never will. That's why we must use any means necessary to fight christianity - the enemy of thinking people.