Stratos Global Corporation was a

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

-based

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

company founded in 1985, mainly serving maritime, government and oil and gas markets around the world. It was acquired by Inmarsat in 2009. Stratos offers mobile and fixed

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

, microwave and wireless services, including Inmarsat,

Iridium satellite constellation The Iridium satellite constellation provides L band voice and data information Pass (spaceflight), coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over the entire surface of Earth. Iridium Communications owns and operates the Sa ...

Globalstar Globalstar, Inc. is an American satellite communications company that operates a low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation for satellite phone and low-speed data communications. The Globalstar second-generation constellation consists of 24 l ...

HughesNet Hughes Network Systems, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar. It is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland and provides satellite internet service. HughesNet has over 1.3 million subscribers in the Americas. History Hughes Communications ...

MSAT MSAT, short for ''Mobile Satellite'', is a satellite-based mobile telephony service developed by the National Research Council of Canada. Supported by a number of companies in the US and Canada, MSAT hosts a number of services, including the broad ...

, and

VSAT A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 kbit/s up to 16 ...

. It caters to government agencies, military forces, NGOs, first responders, and diverse markets such as aeronautical, energy and natural resources, media, maritime, construction/engineering, and recreational users. Its corporate headquarters were located in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

and had a registered office in

St John's, Newfoundland St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

, Canada. It provided products and services through offices worldwide, as well as through a global network of authorized partners.

AmosConnect

AmosConnect is Stratos' PC-based shipboard computer software platform that provides narrowband satellite communications, email, fax, telex, GSM text and interoffice communication for those at sea. AmosConnect 7.4.27, released in December 2008, is the latest supported version. AmosConnect 8.4.0.1, released in November 2013, was discontinued on 30 June 2017 with the company recommending its customers downgrade to version 7. In October 2017 it was reported in the news media that all versions of AmosConnect 8 suffered from a severe

security vulnerability Vulnerabilities are flaws in a computer system that weaken the overall security of the device/system. Vulnerabilities can be weaknesses in either the hardware itself, or the software that runs on the hardware. Vulnerabilities can be exploited by ...

and had an intentional

backdoor A back door is a door in the rear of a building. Back door may also refer to: Arts and media * Back Door (jazz trio), a British group * Porta dos Fundos (literally “Back Door” in Portuguese) Brazilian comedy YouTube channel. * Works so title ...

that could potentially expose a ship's data whilst at sea. Security consulting firm

IOActive IOActive is an independent research fueled security services firm active in several areas. They are known for reporting high severity security vulnerabilities in a variety of products. IOActive has offices in Seattle, London, Dubai and Madrid. IO ...

had informed Inmarsat of the issues in October 2016.

History

In 1997, Stratos acquired IDB Mobile Communications. In 1998, Stratos acquired NovaNet Communications, American Mobile Satellite Corp., and Teleglobe Canada Inc. In 2000, Stratos acquired Shell Offshore Services, Seven Seas Communications, and Rig Telephones Inc (Datacomm).stratosglobal.com
On April 15, 2009, Stratos was acquired by Inmarsat but continued to operate as a separate entity under the Stratos name until 2012.

References

External links

*
Inmarsat acquisition of Stratos
Telecommunications companies of the United States Satellite telephony Satellite Internet access Maritime communication {{US-telecom-company-stub

AmosConnect

History

See also

References

External links