PRESS RELEASE: SpaceX’s Starlink Bug Invasion Met with Kudos

SpaceX’s Starlink Bug Invasion Met with Kudos and Hurrahs

Wealth manager says cyber-attack shows that “Two heads are better than one” thinking can lead to better long-term financial planning. 

HAWTHORNE, Calif. (August 19, 2022) – One wouldn’t expect to hear applause over a successful hack of a major satellite network operation, but there were plenty of kudos and hurrahs following a Belgian researcher’s successful cyber-attack on a user terminal for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite-based internet system.

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation that provides satellite Internet access coverage to more than three dozen countries, with global coverage coming soon.

Lennert Wouters recently conducted a voltage fault injection attack on a Starlink satellite dish he stripped down and modified.  This enabled him to break into the dish and gain access to the Starlink network.

If he were a hacker with ill-intent, he could have placed malicious coding into the system, but Wouters successful attack didn’t land him in jail, or any hot water whatsoever. He revealed a critical vulnerability through SpaceX’s innovative bug bounty program. The program offers rewards of $100 to $25,000 to participants who successfully target networks, routers, dishes, satellites, and more.

This crowdsourcing approach is SpaceX’s progressive approach towards preventing future network penetrations that could be executed with malicious intent.

“We will happily ship a Starlink kit to any customer that purchases one,” the company states in an online invitation to the bug bounty. “With Starlink kits all over the world, we don’t have much control over what users do to them. History shows us that it’s hard (and maybe impossible) to make devices completely resilient to persistent attackers with unrestricted physical access—the hacker just has too much power when they have infinite time to modify the hardware.”

“Whether it’s putting heads together, planning ahead, or going with the smart crowd, the key concept to take home is to always be looking toward the future”, said Derek Munchow, Managing Partner with Augustus Wealth.

Munchow is a financial planner specializing in equity compensation for space and technology employees. He helps employees at places like SpaceX manage their stock options in the same sort of thoughtful, well-planned way that SpaceX manages its satellite network. 

“Imagine Microsoft saying to its customers that they will pay for every bug you report in Office? Everyone would be reporting everything, and Microsoft would be able to make a higher quality product,” Munchow said. “I applaud SpaceX’s understanding that more brainpower is smarter brainpower. The same goes with managing money or tricky financial situations – you must tap into other knowledge sources that may actually be able to solve what seems like an impossible problem.”

DISCLOSURE:

Augustus Wealth, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Augustus Wealth, LLC and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. This financial planning assessment is solely for informational purposes. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. This assessment is built based off information provided by the client and cannot be relied upon as financial advice. No advice may be rendered by Augustus Wealth, LLC unless a client service agreement is in place.