Wiseman:
... I never really thought about the security of a satellite before, but if someone had the high gain antennas necessary to reach the satellites, what is to keep them from getting taken over?
The Americans are very touchy about satellites, they classify them as 'military hardware' even the commercial ones. I would imagine it would be very difficult to "taken over" a satellite.

Are you talking about physically controlling one, as in steering it like a guided missile or "taken over" as in having access to the data that passes through it?

I don't know about flying/piloting a satellite but it's all done though telemetry control between earth and the satellite i.e. a feedback loop that keeps the satellite in the correct position. The data side is all done through something called the NOCC which is responsible for stuff like admission control, so control the NOCC and you control the data!

Okay that's enough from me, the M.I.B.'s at the Pentagon probably don't like anyone saying *cough* Satellite

btw the bandwidth of them *cough* *cough* *cough* is unbelievably high (the new ones) and as the saying goes "Knowledge is Power" or Data in this case.

PZ