Russian threat actors have joined in with China in targeting Space X technologies. Over the last several days we have observed several domains registered that indicate that Space X is being targeted and that when we review the systems in which they are hosted, point directly back to previously observed Russian activity.
Previously we noted that China was targeting the technology of Space-X and in fact had copied most of the companies designs down to nearly the smallest level of detail.
Images started appearing online and in presentations indicating that China was focused on stealing the intellectual property of Space-X for the past several years. With this new campaign by Russia it appears as though Russia too has aimed directly at the companies assets. I am pretty sure that we have a new space race on our hands and that time will tell just how big this problem actually is for the Hawthorne California based company.
One thing is certain, when companies do good things US adversaries notice. By eliminating the R&D time needed to be highly successful, foreign companies can get products to market by stealing other companies designs. This has been the Chinese playbook for quite some time now and we now see indications that Russia may follow suit.
Previously we had reported on fake products entering the US market via Amazon. These knock offs are just some of the problems we have been watching emerge out of high technology companies. The packaging and products are very hard to distinguish between the real and fake products. We have to wonder if China and Russia will use these same tactics to advance their capabilities when it comes to space exploration and the launch of satellites and other technology.
We will continue to monitor this type of activity. We see this type of activity everyday and it is not possible to always report on these incidents but this one stood out since we have had previous reporting on espionage carried out by China and now we are seeing the same type of activity from known Russian actors.
IOCS:
195.208.1.104 - Russian hosted Space X cloned pages and images