A U.S. congressional commission has determined that the Chinese military may be responsible for computer hacking that interfered with two U.S. Earth observation satellites in 2007 and 2008, Bloomberg reported Oct. 27.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission says in the final draft of its annual report that hackers interfered with the Landsat 7 satellite for at least 12 minutes in October 2007 and July 2008, and the Terra AM-1 satellite for two minutes in June 2008 and nine minutes in October 2008.
The draft says the breaches are consistent with Chinese military writings that advocate disabling an enemy’s space systems, and particularly “ground-based infrastructure, such as satellite control facilities,” but it does not directly accuse the Chinese government of conducting or sponsoring the four attacks. The draft says assigning definitive blame is difficult because the perpetrators obscure their involvement.
