{"id":41034,"date":"2025-08-03T19:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/41034\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T19:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T19:29:10","slug":"the-surprising-story-of-the-chinese-spy-eavesdropping-on-airbus-and-thales-satellites-in-the-countryside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/41034\/","title":{"rendered":"The surprising story of the Chinese spy eavesdropping on Airbus and Thales satellites in the countryside"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A simple farmhouse and a mysterious dish set the stage for a real-world spy thriller. When French counterintelligence spotted that setup, they realised someone was tapping into high-value space communications.<\/p>\n<p>What drew their attention?<\/p>\n<p>Agents working for the Defence Intelligence and Security Directorate zeroed in on an odd <a href=\"https:\/\/www.futura-sciences.com\/en\/what-the-latest-satellite-images-of-russian-nuclear-bases-reveal_18887\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">satellite<\/a> dish perched on a balcony beside farm silos. It wasn\u2019t your everyday TV dish\u2014it had specialised gear aimed straight at CNES ground stations in Issus-Aussaguel. Those stations direct observation satellites built by Airbus and Thales, making the intercepted signals a serious national security concern.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"767\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/empsat-1024x767.jpeg\" alt=\"\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>This is the type of small station offered by the Chinese company Emposat. Did the satellite dish used resemble these models? \u00a9 Emposat<\/p>\n<p>Chinese big ears in the countryside<\/p>\n<p>The homeowner, Dong H., was no ordinary resident. A former employee of Beijing\u2019s Academy of Science and Technology and president of Stahd Europe\u2014a subsidiary of Emposat, the Chinese communications specialist\u2014she had all the credentials for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.futura-sciences.com\/en\/they-control-them-alive-chinese-scientists-turn-bees-into-cyborg-spies_18881\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">espionage<\/a>. Emposat\u2019s failed bid to install a ground station in the Czech Republic underscored how wary governments are of hidden antennas.<br \/>French investigators couldn\u2019t prove data theft outright, but they confirmed the dish was finely tuned to CNES frequencies. Instead of a raid, authorities filed legal charges for illegal antenna installation, quietly dismantling the operation. Dong\u2019s rural hideout shows how easy it can be to set up covert surveillance right under everyone\u2019s nose.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Capture-decran-2025-06-05-a-14.07.17-100x100.png\" alt=\"\" itemprop=\"image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t        Sylvain Biget                <\/p>\n<p>\n    Journalist    <\/p>\n<p data-start=\"27\" data-end=\"481\">From journalism to tech expertise<br data-start=\"64\" data-end=\"67\"\/>Sylvain Biget is a journalist driven by a fascination for technological progress and the digital world\u2019s impact on society. A graduate of the \u00c9cole Sup\u00e9rieure de Journalisme de Paris, he quickly steered his career toward media outlets specializing in high-tech. Holder of a private-pilot licence and certified professional drone operator, he blends his passion for aviation with deep expertise in tech reporting.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"483\" data-end=\"1004\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\">A key member of Futura\u2019s editorial team<br data-start=\"526\" data-end=\"529\"\/>As a technology journalist and editor at Futura, Sylvain covers a wide spectrum of topics\u2014cybersecurity, the rise of electric vehicles, drones, space science and emerging technologies. Every day he strives to keep Futura\u2019s readers up to date on current tech developments and to explore the many facets of tomorrow\u2019s world. His keen interest in the advent of artificial intelligence enables him to cast a distinctive light on the challenges of this technological revolution.<\/p>\n<p>                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/auteur-fs-100x100.webp.webp\" class=\"attachment-100x100 size-100x100\" alt=\"author-fs\" itemprop=\"image\"  \/>                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A simple farmhouse and a mysterious dish set the stage for a real-world spy thriller. When French counterintelligence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":["post-41034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}