• Articles
    • Editorial Articles
    • Research Articles
    • WatchGuard Articles
  • The 443 Podcast
  • Threat Landscape
  • About
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Contribute to Secplicity

Secplicity - Security Simplified

Powered by WatchGuard Technologies

WatchGuard Security Prediction #10 – Alien Attackers Hijack Our Broadcast Signals from Space

December 16, 2015 By Corey Nachreiner

Unlike cyber criminals, who want to stay under the radar, Hacktivists like to make big splashy messages. The whole point of “cyber” activism is to use technology to get as many people as possible to notice your message, whatever it may be.

Prediction video link: https://youtu.be/EEbqr-2XFRk

Anonymous is a great example of this, with their well-known videos containing a man in a suit wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and speaking with a distorted voice over theatrical music. All of the Anonymous’ “operations” are designed to get noticed. Whether they’re trolling the Church of Scientology, DDoSing credit card providers, defacing websites, or doxing someone they disagree with, the goal is getting attention for their cause. What better way to get attention than to hijack a live TV signal or big event?

While hacktivists are known for their attention-grabbing videos, so far they’ve never taken over live TV or radio, and really gotten their message across to a wider audience. Movies and TV would have us expect “l33t [email protected]” to take over the airwaves, but so far their strange hacktivist videos have been relegated to YouTube posts anyone can do. Hacking TV broadcasts may sound like sci-fi, but there is precedent. Back in the 80s, a weird, masked man (sound familiar?) took over a few Chicago TV stations for a few minutes at a time. While our TV broadcast have become more protected today, the breach to TV5Monde—a French broadcast network—shows that attackers still have the potential to take over the airwaves.

Next year, I expect cyber attackers to pull off some hack that gets broadcast to the world live. Perhaps they’ll take over a big stadium screen during the Super Bowl or World Cup; they might hijack all of the big TVs in Times Square; or perhaps they pull off the ultimate hacktivist’s dream, and hijack a major TV network’s live broadcast. Whatever it is, expect hacktivists to do something big that televises their revolution to the world live.

Visit our WatchGuard security predictions site

— Corey Nachreiner, CISSP (@SecAdept)

Share This:

Related

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Infosec news, Predictions, security predictions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The 443 Podcast

A weekly podcast featuring the leading white-hat hackers and security researchers. Listen Now
the 443 podcast

Threat Landscape

Filter and view Firebox Feed data by type of attack, region, country, and date range. View Now
threat landscape

Top Posts

  • Cybersecurity News: Free Cybersecurity Training, TrickBot Group Exposed, Major GoDaddy Breach, and Russia to Legalize cybercrime?!
  • US National Cybersecurity Strategy
  • Here Come The Regulations
  • Cybersecurity’s Toll on Mental Health

Email Newsletter

Sign up to get the latest security news and threat analysis delivered straight to your inbox

By signing up you agree to our Privacy Policy.


The views and opinions expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of WatchGuard Technologies.

Stay in Touch

Recent Posts

  • Cybersecurity News: LastPass Incident Revealed, White House Issues Cybersecurity Strategy, FBI Purchases Leaked USHOR PII Data, and a Slew of Other Breaches
  • An Update on Section 230
  • Here Come The Regulations
  • US National Cybersecurity Strategy
  • Cybersecurity News: Free Cybersecurity Training, TrickBot Group Exposed, Major GoDaddy Breach, and Russia to Legalize cybercrime?!
View All

Search

Archives

Copyright © 2023 WatchGuard Technologies · Cookie Policy · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use