The skies above us are teeming with satellites. The latest figures estimate there are over 12,000 satellites currently active, with thousands more defunct craft left to decay in orbit. All that activity has caused numerous complications for astronomers and researchers alike, interfering with radio telescopes with “unintended” radiation leaks.

Now it turns out that they’re also contributing to a massive leak of personal, corporate, and government data, as researchers at UC San Diego and the University of Maryland were alarmed to discover. First reported by Wired, the joint study uncovered glaring holes in satellite security enabling “anyone with a few hundred dollars of consumer grade hardware” to rustle up a huge collection of unencrypted data beamed down to Earth.

Using an $800 fixed-po

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