Enlarge (credit: US National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing.)

An advanced hacking campaign originating in China has spent the past year infiltrating satellite operators, defense contractors, and telecoms companies in the US and Southeast Asia, researchers from Symantec said.

The attackers specifically looked for and infected computers one target used to monitor and control satellites, Symantec researchers reported in a blog post published Tuesday. A hack on a second target in the geospatial industry zeroed in on the software-development tools it used. The focus on the operational sides of the unnamed companies suggests that the hackers sought the ability not just to intercept but possibly to also alter communications traffic sent by businesses and consumers.

“Espionage is the group’s likely motive, but given its interest in compromising operational systems, it could also adopt a more aggressive, disruptive stance should it choose to do so,” Symantec researchers wrote.