Countries has always been trying different ways to get into each other systems. However, it is hard to say that the very famous TikTok has been used as a point of entry. TikTok has been used as a data harvester to be able to acquire and compromise the personal information of tens of millions of Americans. On top of personal information, not too long ago there was at least six state government network facilities that were compromised. Now imagine the odds that a satellite network or ground station facility being compromised. All the mission data, telemetry, and other payload data that is being downlinked would also be obtained by adversaries. Not only does a single simple app can compromise the entire system but also some other devices such as the Huawei phones has such capabilities of compromising the entire system. It has been noted that the Huawei phones has the capability of “capturing and disrupting highly restricted” communications from the Department of Defense (DoD) where they have cell phones deployed near cell towers in close proximity to military bases. These activities are well thought out and planned through social engineering to acquire more information by gaining access into ground facilities.
Now here are some questions to think about next what else are your apps and phones keeping that you aren’t aware about? What other networks can such devices and applications be able to access? How are these devices able to relay the information back? What are we doing to strengthen the ground stations capabilities to prevent further compromises? What are the limits that these devices can have, can it take over an entire network?