Satellite hacking poses growing global threat as cyber defenses weaken, Israeli official warns

Israel National Cyber Directorate Director Kobi Menashe warned at the Cyber Week Conference at Tel Aviv University that cyber attacks on satellites are surging, posing a growing threat to global communications, aviation, and shipping. He noted that since Russia's 2022 Viasat hack, space hacks have increased as satellite numbers rise and cyber defenses weaken.

Israel National Cyber Directorate Director of Guidance and Spectrum Defense Kobi Menashe warned on Monday that cyber attacks on satellites are surging, posing a growing global threat to communications, aviation, and shipping. Speaking at the Cyber Week Conference at Tel Aviv University, Menashe described an "invisible" cyber war in space that often goes unnoticed by the public. He cited the 2022 Russian Viasat hack against the satellite internet system of American company Viasat, which affected Ukraine's communications network and other European countries. Since then, space hacks have increased as the number of satellites continues to rise, lowering the standard of cyber defense security. Menashe noted that modern satellites communicate with multiple nodes rather than a single ground station, meaning a hack on one satellite can rapidly spread to others. Space hacks can take various forms, including eavesdropping, jamming, location spoofing, and protocol exploitation. He also pointed out that autonomous operations lasting up to 48 hours without human validation allow longer undetected attacks. Such hacks can affect national communications, cars, aircraft, and sea vessels; 1,100 maritime vessels lost maneuvering ability during the early 2026 Iran war.