We are on the cusp of a new era of space exploration. A second space race has kicked off, with dozens of countries and countless companies competing to achieve the next big thing.

Only, this time around, we are living in an entirely different world from when Sputnik was launched back in 1957. Technology has advanced beyond our wildest expectations and the last 60 years have seen space evolve from an exciting scientific venture to become a domain of international security significance, housing some of Earth’s most critical infrastructures.

Space infrastructure provides vital services for several critical industries, including; defence, transportation, utilities, oil and gas, emergency services, banking, environment, academia, and others. The provided services range from global communications to remote sensing and geolocation, with many new applications undoubtedly on the horizon, including plans for further exploration and even human settlement!

Critical infrastructures, and industrial systems in general, are both particularly vulnerable and specifically targeted by adversarial groups and state actors, and space systems are by no means immune to this exponentially increasing threat.

In fact, space systems face an even greater range of threats and have even further-reaching consequences than those combatted by terrestrial critical infrastructures.

Considering the volatile state of global affairs today there has never been a more urgent need for space security as there is now.

What is space security?

Space security is a tough job with rapidly evolving demands requiring collaboration from a complex mesh of interrelated specialisations to protect space infrastructure from unwanted disturbances.

Space systems operate in one of the most naturally hostile environments known to man, constantly facing threats such as electromagnetic radiation and space debris, all of which is amplified by a lack of redundancy or maintenance options.

On top of all these uniquely difficult challenges national security requirements have recently pushed space to the top of the priority list, drawing significant attention from militaries, militias, and other malicious miscreants seeking to manipulate space technologies in pursuit of power, influence, wealth, and chaos.

But is it real?

Far from a theoretical Hollywood fantasy, research has found that there have been well over 100 significant satellite hacking events since Sputnik, with the first occurring way back in 1986.

The first few years of space attacks saw a heavy focus on piracy and spoofing, with satellite imagery data being eavesdropped to avoid subscription fees and television streams being hijacked to broadcast unsolicited messages.

A noteworthy example is the 1987 hack conducted by an employee of the American Christian Broadcasting Network who transmitted unauthorised biblical messages over the Playboy Channel‘s planned broadcast.

The 1990s saw a move towards more technical attacks such as signal jamming, with satellite jammers being made commercially available and state actors such as the US, Iran, Indonesia, and Russia carrying out various military-sponsored jamming operations.

Alongside exponentially growing demands for space systems, the turn of the century brought with it a significantly increased interest in malicious operations targeting space infrastructure.

The use of commercial and state-sponsored jamming, signal hijacking, laser attacks, malware, eavesdropping, and other increasingly sophisticated attacks has been becoming more and more common.

For example, in 2007 China compromised two NASA satellites via the ground station, taking complete control over their flight signalling. That same year China also demonstrated a kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon against one of their own satellites, producing hundreds of pieces of dangerous space debris along with it and playing a role in the onset of the second space race that we are witnessing today.

As the battle for space dominance ramps up for a second time, a plethora of new catastrophes have entered our adversaries’ playbooks with the help of new technologies. Without adequate attention to space security our societies could begin to witness targeted events such as air traffic interference, electric grid failure, loss of communications or geolocation during disaster response, redirected guided missiles, and more.

Assessing space threats

When discussing targeted threats it is helpful to break them down into three components:

• The threat actor, who is the person or organisation behind the attack and can be assessed by considering their capability to conduct an attack versus their intent behind the attack
• The threat vector, which refers to the vulnerable point of entry used by the threat actor to successfully carry out the attack; for example if a ground system is airgapped (i.e. not connected to any network) then the threat vector may be a flash drive; and
• The attack itself, which is the exploit used by the threat actor to achieve their objectives and cause the desired impact, for example malware or control signal spoofing.

This is visually summarised in Fig. 1 below, whereby the threat actor exploits a threat vector to gain access to the system for launching the attack, which then causes an impact that extends back out from the system towards the mission environment.

A threat actor can generally be categorised as one of the following: nation-state, terrorist, criminal group, or individual (e.g. insider threats, hacktivists, or bored teenagers). Sometimes hacktivism occurs on a larger scale (e.g. Anonymous) and can be treated as a separate category, conforming to neither terrorist nor criminal motivations.

Threat vectors need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis as every system will have its own processes and procedures, inputs and outputs. Research has identified four common attack surfaces for deployed space systems: inputs (e.g. sensors and RF antennae), outputs (e.g. telemetry transmitters), internal communications (e.g. Spacewire buses), and computing (e.g. the internal system that integrates each component). Each of these components can be accessed via a myriad of different threat vectors, such as through ground segments, supply chains, unsecured communications links, and countless other avenues.

Finally, targeted attacks to space infrastructure can be broken down into the following categories: kinetic physical, non-kinetic physical, electronic, and cyber. In this context both kinetic and non-kinetic physical threats aim to impact the physical components of a space system; with kinetic referring to tangible threats such as ASAT weapons and non-kinetic referring to intangible threats such as lasers and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons. An electronic threat generally involves interfering with RF signalling, with the consequences to the space infrastructure itself usually being temporary. Last but certainly not least, cyber threats seek to interfere with the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of space infrastructures through the manipulation of data and code.

Cyber threats are the most flexible and rapidly growing of the counter-space attack categories, with a wide range of malicious options and outcomes available to the adversary.

Well, now what?

Rest assured, governments and companies around the world are ramping up their investment in space security.

The Australian Space Agency was launched in 2018, birthing a soon-to-be thriving Australian space industry. South Australia quickly leveraged their established Defence experience to take advantage of this new foray and now supports more than 80 space-focused organisations.

It’s an exciting time for both Australia and the world as we all watch humanity push further into the unknown. However, the security of space infrastructure must remain central to our efforts, especially to protect the already highly dependent critical industries here on earth.

The better we can secure space, the more benefits we can reap from it. All it takes is the right expertise.