Yes. Leave the door open and someone will steal your stuff. Not because they wanted your stuff, but because you left the door open.
I wonder how many of the old birds are out there that could respond to such. It would take very specialized knowledge and probably computational ability but it seems like it would be a considerable security risk. The orbits determine potential impact zones but what's to say an operator could not deorbit a satellite so as to pose a threat to ground targets. Probably more than an individual could work out but certainly not beyond the ability of a nation state if there was propellant left that could enable such a move.
Really old ones? Probably not many, they're so long out of service they're tumbling and their electrical systems are barely functional, if at all. If they ran their mission, then they're out of propellant anyway. There are a few old-timers that chatter when they get sunlight, but they're kind of worthless other than as a marker.
Skynet 1A failed at ~18 months, so it probably had plenty of propellent left. Supposedly, the twat tubes quit, but if something happened to reconnect itself because of temperature variations and it started talking, someone could have found it. It may have been moved by those who knew about it and they were trying to deorbit a dead bird and that failed, or someone maliciously moved it because they could or were trying to do something else with it.
It seems that this is untraceable, unless the FCC triangulates in your sending. There are still some of the us listening stations operational.
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