Polish hackers again had the opportunity to prove themselves in the finals of the Hack-a-Sat 4 competition organized by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Space Force (USSF). The Americans allowed daredevils from around the world to try to hack their satellite in exchange for cash prizes.
They hacked into an American satellite. Second place of Poles
The Polish team “Poland Can Into Space” defended the title this year. He took second place in the first and second editions of Hack-a-Sat, and won the third. He also won the qualifier last year and two years ago. This year he was fourth in qualifying and was battling for victory against four other teams – one each from Germany and Italy, and two from the USA and Great Britain. In the end, the team from Poland finished the competition in second place.
The hackers targeted the Moonlighter artificial satellite, which was placed in low Earth orbit in June this year and is administered by the US Space Force. This was the first edition of the competition in which teams tried to hack into a satellite actually in space. In addition to mastering the real satellite and creating a permanent connection from them, the hackers’ task was also to defend against the other teams. Of course, the struggles were scored, and the actions of the teams were followed live in Las Vegas.
Each of the teams on the podium not only managed to take control of the satellite, but also took photographs from space, which were published on the web by the organizers of the competition. You can see them below (photo of the Polish band in the first post on the left):
“Poland Can Into Space” admittedly did not defend the title, but they took a very high place anyway and won 30,000. prize dollars (PLN 121.5 thousand). The winner was the team “mHACKeroni” from Italy, which won 50,000. dollars, and the American-British team “jmp fs” took the last place on the podium: [rcx]”, who received a $20,000 prize.
The goal of the entire competition organized by the USAF and USSF is, of course, to find possible security holes and patch them before the hackers of hostile countries find them. The Americans are trying to protect their systems against cyberattacks by Chinese or Russian hackers in a rather spectacular way. For the starting teams, it is of course an opportunity to test their skills and obtain funds for further development.
Source: Gazeta
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