“A radical review of cybersecurity in space is needed to avoid potentially catastrophic attacks,” warn researchers at the International Security Department of UK-based thinktank, Chatham House. The report titled, “Space, the Final Frontier for Cybersecurity?,” released today is based on a multi-year study led by David Livingstone and Dr. Patricia Lewis. From the report: “The vulnerability of satellites and other space assets to cyberattack is often overlooked in wider discussions of cyberthreats to critical national infrastructure. This is a significant failing, given society’s substantial and ever increasing reliance on satellite technologies for navigation, communications, remote sensing, monitoring and the myriad associated applications. Vulnerabilities at the junction of space-based or space-derived capability with cybersecurity cause major national, regional and international security concerns, yet are going unaddressed, apart from in some ‘high end’ space-based systems. Analysing the intersection between cyber and space security is essential to understanding this non-traditional, evolving security threat.” Further notes include:

— Satellite services are potential targets for a range of cyberthreats, as space supports a growing and increasingly critical level of functionality within national infrastructure across the world, stimulating economic growth. One attack on a key node in the space sector could have the leveraged potential to affect critical national and international capabilities. This dependency on space is not unique to developed states; most countries will have similar vulnerabilities.

— Cyberattacks on satellites can include jamming, spoofing and hacking attacks on communication networks; targeting control systems or mission packages; and attacks on the ground infrastructure such as satellite control centres. Possible cyberthreats against space-based systems include state-to-state and military actions; well-resourced organized criminal elements seeking financial gain; terrorist groups wishing to promote their causes, even up to the catastrophic level of cascading satellite collisions; and individual hackers who want to fanfare their skills.

— There is currently no coherent global organization with regard to cybersecurity in space. Development of a flexible, multilateral space and cybersecurity regime is urgently required