Cybersecurity Principles for Space Systems

Space systems, ranging from satellites to mission control centers, are frequently the target of cyberattacks. Despite the space industry's technical sophistication, their cybersecurity efforts have lagged behind that of other high-technology sectors. Evidenced by the prevalence of vulnerabilities and attack vectors that go unchecked, space systems ranging from CubeSats to sophisticated rovers have considerable cybersecurity challenges. Although some of these issues are no different than other industries, space systems are met with a unique confluence of cybersecurity risks that complicates the sector's remediation capabilities. This paper explores factors that led to the space sector's poor cybersecurity posture, various cyberattacks against space systems, and existing mitigation techniques employed by the sector. Analyzing the current state of the industry along with security practices across similar sectors, several security principles for satellites and space assets are proposed to help reorient the sector toward designing, developing, building, and managing cyber secure systems. These security principles address both technical and policy issues in order to address all space system stakeholders.