You Only Need $750 of Equipment to Pilfer Data From Satellites, Researchers Say

Data transmitted via satellite may not be as secure as previously thought.

A new study published on Monday found that communications from cellphone carriers, retailers, banks, and even militaries are being broadcast unencrypted through geostationary satellites.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Maryland scanned 39 of these satellites from a rooftop in Southern California over three years. They found that roughly half of the signals they analyzed were transmitting unencrypted data, potentially exposing everything from phone calls and military logistics to a retail chain’s inventory.

“There is a clear mismatch between how satellite customers expect data to be secured and how it is secured in practice,” the researchers wrote in their p