From the category archives:

Space/Satellite/Geospatial

When Satellites Go Rogue: On the Origins of Space Crime

May 16, 2010

In early April 2010, for the first time in history, an American geostationary satellite has gone “rogue.” The satellite, known as the Galaxy 15, is no longer responding to command and control communications from its legitimate owner, the Intelsat corporation. Moreover, the satellite has left its assigned duty location and is now drifting uncontrolled through space. While mis-orbiting and crashed satellites are not a new phenomenon, they usually cease functioning and stop transmitting when leaving orbit and hurtling towards earth. What makes the Galaxy 15 case so unique, is that the satellite’s systems are fully functioning, with its telecommunications payload (the equipment that relays customer’s transmissions around the globe) fully “powered-on.” Despite 150,000-200,000 attempts to reboot system’s software, the satellite is refusing to accept commands from Earth. The primary threat in this case is not from the satellite crashing directly into another satellite, but instead interfering with other global satellite [...]

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Hacking GPS and Satellite Navigation: Potential Criminal Payoffs

March 7, 2010

Given the growing dependence on location based services and GPS systems, it is clear that attacks on these core technologies will increase in the future. As noted in the article below, many companies, especially those with expensive cargo, are gps-tagging their vehicles in order to be able to track them. Yet these weak signals are subject to blocking and even spoofing in furtherance of criminal activitiy. As noted elsewhere on Future Crimes, location-based services will explode in popularity in the coming years. Their primary feature set, is also their Achilles-heel, that is the dependence on and provision of accurate location data. The article below does an excellent job highlighting how altering or jamming location based information services might support transnational criminal activities. GPS vulnerable to hacker attacks By Jason Palmer Source: BBC News Technology that depends on satellite-navigation signals is increasingly threatened by attack from widely available equipment, experts say. [...]

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Police Drone “Air Robot” Leads to Arrest in UK

February 18, 2010

As noted elsewhere on Future Crimes, it is just a matter of time before the widespread adoption of aerial drones becomes absolutely commonplace in law enforcement. While police have been experimenting with these devices for sometime, the below case may be the first time an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been directly credited with an arrest by civilian law enforcement authorities. The device, which is also outfitted with an on-board camera and thermal-imaging technology, sells for approximately $80,000 (US), placing it well within the reach of most police agencies in the developed world. Given the significant cost savings when compared to multi-million dollar police helicopters and trained police pilots, law enforcement agencies will likely rapidly transition to police UAV devices en masse within the near future. The drones fly nearly silently and thus are not readily detectable by criminals or others being surveilled, a fact which is raising privacy concerns [...]

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CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones

January 23, 2010

It was just a matter of time before military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) moved to the civilian law enforcement world. Despite recent obstacles to deploying police UAVs in the skies above the United States, it appears as if the UK may be moving forward with a plan to do just that. It is no surprise that the UK, which has more extensively deployed urban CCTV than any other country on earth, would be an early adopter of this technology. Of course the use of unmanned law enforcement aerial drones raises a number of questions, not the least of which is surely to be raised by privacy advocates. Has 1984 finally arrived? Perhaps it arrived long ago, but many may be uncomfortable with undetectable aerial surveillance around the clock in one’s own town or city. From a policing perspective, what might be the most efficient and judicious use of these technologies? [...]

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Human Commercial Spacecraft Enters Service: Will “Space Marshals” follow?

January 6, 2010

Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise In December 2009, Virgin Galatic (the spacebound cousin of Virgin Atlantic Airways), launched its VSS Enterprise Spacecraft. While a rash of billionaires have taken to space tourism as the next “it” thing, Virgin may bring space travel to the common man, (at least the price will drop from tens of millions to hundreds of thousands for space travel). With the eventual movement of more people into space, how long will it be before a drunk space passenger assaults a flight attend or grabs her in an inappropriate manner? (In space, you need less alcohol to become drunk!). Who will be responsible for handling criminality committed while in space? Will there be “space marshal’s”? If terrorists garner attention by attacking civilian commercial aircraft, imagine the notoriety they would obtain via a planned attack against a newly commissioned space craft. The current planned fleet of commercial space craft [...]

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Space Cops to Enforce World Peace

January 4, 2010

An interesting article from December 1951 anticipating “space cops” from Modern Mechanix Magazine.

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Unmanned drones in law enforcement

September 1, 2007

Cops Demand Drones by Noah Shactman, Wired Magazine, August 10, 2007 In the Spring of 2006, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department began flying small spy drones to track suspects. Weeks later, the drone was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Top cops are still pissed. The chairman of the aviation committee for the International Association of Chiefs of Police… Donald Shinnamon… charges that the FAA is applying its rules inconsistently and defying federal laws about government-operated aircraft. “There is an immediate need by state and local public safety personnel for unmanned aerial systems,” he said at an unmanned systems confab here this week. But by his interpretation, the FAA’s rules mean “it’s OK to fly a model aircraft but not OK to fly an aircraft in search of a murder suspect” without its permission… Local officials aren’t necessarily looking for unfettered UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]-driving rights, Shinnamon said. Ideally, the [...]

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