When it comes to space, in addition to the obvious risks of operation and placement of assets, the risk posed by cybersecurity threats poses unique challenges. Not only do you have to manage getting the asset to space, operating the asset as intended, handle risks that are present with all devices such as updates, but there are also some unique challenges to managing the cybersecurity risks of an asset in space.

Space assets still face the traditional risks related to cybersecurity, such as secure communication, updating and managing the software, but the big difference is related to physical access. The lack of physical access to the space asset means that the wireless communication will be crucial to ensuring that the communication is properly secured, and helps perform software and hardware management. There definitely are risks to being intercepted by other satellites or ground sources, communications jammed, and spoofed for space based assets.

The issue without having physical access to a device, means that if a system needs to be replaced or someone else is able to get access through malicious means, then the owner and mangers would be out of luck. The worst thing would be that an adversary is able to latch onto a space asset and either force the asset to be taken offline or modified however an attacker desires. Taking a satellite offline could include capturing the asset and returning it to earth as a whole for disassembly or simply forcing the asset to de-orbit.

To stay in the loop with updates, make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram. If you’re curious about whether amateur telescopes can be hacked, check out our article on the subject. We post articles weekly, so make sure to check out other articles this for more amazing content like this.