UCSD researchers intercept hundreds of unencrypted messages from space

You can’t see them. But up in the sky, about 30,000 miles from San Diego, there are dozens of beaming signals to our city and region. They are needed to transfer important data that include cell phone calls and codes that allow remote control of important infrastructure.

“But, the signal’s also able to be picked up anywhere. In particular we were able to pick it up just by pointing our dish up here in San Diego.” said Aaron Schulman, a professor of computer science and engineering at UC San Diego.

The “dish” Schulman speaks of sits on the roof of the computer science building at UCSD. It’s nothing fancy, a consumer grade satellite dish that anyone could buy for less than a thousand bucks.

Schulman was one of a handful of UC San Diego scholars, with partners at the University of Maryland