The Viasat hack was a

cyberattack A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricte ...

on American communications company

Viasat Viasat may refer to: *Viasat (American company) (founded 1986) * Viasat (Nordic television service) (founded 1991) * Danish 1st Division, officially Viasat Divisionen, second-highest football league in Denmark * Viasat Cup, 2006 Danish football to ...

affecting their KA-SAT network.

Events

On 24 February, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of Viasat modems got

bricked A brick (or bricked device) is a mobile device, game console, router or other consumer electronic device that is no longer functional due to corrupted firmware, a hardware problem, or other damage. The term analogizes the device to a brick's ...

by a "deliberate ... cyber event". Remote control of 5,800 wind turbines belonging to

Enercon Enercon GmbH is a wind turbine manufacturer based in Aurich, Lower Saxony, Germany. It has been the market leader in Germany since the mid-1990s. Enercon has production facilities in Germany (Aurich, Emden and Magdeburg), Brazil, India, Canada, ...

in Central Europe was affected. The

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collect ...

was reported to be investigating the attack in March 2022. On 31 March, 2022, SentinelOne researchers Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Max van Amerongen announced the discovery of a new wiper malware codenamed AcidRain designed to permanently disable routers. Viasat later confirmed that the AcidRain malware was used during the 'cyber event'. AcidRain shares code with

VPNFilter VPNFilter is malware designed to infect routers and certain network attached storage devices. As of 24 May 2018, it is estimated to have infected approximately 500,000 routers worldwide, though the number of at-risk devices is larger. It can steal ...

, a 2018 cyber operation against routers attributed to the Russian military by the FBI. On 10 May, 2022, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

condemned the attack targeting Viasat's KA-SAT network as a Russian operation. The Viasat hack led Ukraine to deem Starlink as a potential solution for communications amidst the war as Russia had damaged or destroyed other means to communicate and get Internet within the country.Elon Musk says SpaceX's Starlink satellites active over Ukraine after request from embattled country's leaders

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

(26 February 2022)

Viasat Analysis

According to Viasat, the attacker used a poorly configured virtual private network appliance to gain access to the trusted management part of the KA-SAT network. The attackers then issued commands to overwrite part of the flash memory in modems, making them unable to access the network, but not permanently damaged. The satellite itself and its ground infrastructure were not directly affected.

References

External links

KA-SAT Network cyber attack overview
- from Viasat 2022 in computing Cyberattacks Hacking in the 2020s February 2022 crimes in Europe {{Hacking in the 2020s, collapsed Russian–Ukrainian cyberwarfare