] Pirates are the heroes of age-old adventure stories, but
] most of us forget that whole regions still depend on
] modern pirates. The coast around Malacca in Malaysia is
] such a spot, together with the Bay of Thailand and the
] Southern Chinese Sea. In South America the coast of
] Northern Brazil is another centre of pirate activity. On
] average every other day sees an attack, and whenever
] pirates strike they leave good manners at home. Typically
] all people on board of a ship are killed, unless they
] manage to escape with a rescue boat. Most pirates know in
] advance if the ship and its cargo is worth an attack,
] because they use state of the art equipment to monitor
] Inmarsat communications and even fax transmissions
] listing every single cargo item.

An interesting article on snooping Inmarsat

Inmarsat zapping