Military Satellite Using Chinese-Made Components... Risk of Hacking

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The military is being criticized for using Chinese-made components in the core equipment of reconnaissance satellites, exposing them to hacking risks.

According to data disclosed on the 12th by Han Ki-ho, a member of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly from the People Power Party, the South Korean military is also conducting the '425 Project' to develop five reconnaissance satellites. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute plans to develop two Electro-Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) satellites, one each in 2022 and 2023. The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) is scheduled to develop three high-performance Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in 2024.

The problem is that both the servers analyzing the information captured by the satellites and the storage devices holding the analyzed data are all Chinese-made. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute maintains that "the satellites are isolated from external networks, making them safe from hacking."

However, Representative Han stated, "There have been cases where hacking occurred even without network connections, and remote access was possible despite disconnecting from the internet," adding, "The NongHyup computer network, which is separated into internal and external networks, was hacked by North Korea."

He further pointed out, "The Ministry of Science and ICT, the Rural Development Administration, and the Korea Forest Service also use servers and cartridges from the same Chinese company, so comprehensive security measures are necessary."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.