#DEFCON: How the International Space Station Enables Cybersecurity

Like any other IT environment, there are potential cyber-risks to the International Space Station (ISS), though the station is quite literally like no environment on Earth.

In a session on August 9 at the Aerospace Village within the DEFCON virtual security conference, former NASA astronaut Pamela Melroy outlined the cybersecurity lessons learned from human spaceflight and what still remains a risk. Melroy flew on two space shuttle missions during her tenure at NASA and visited ISS. Hurtling high above the Earth, ISS is loaded full of computing systems designed to control the station, conduct experiments and communicate with the ground.

“Space is incredibly important in our daily lives,” Melroy said.

She noted that GPS, weather tracking and communications are reliant on space-based technology. In Melroy’s view, the space industry has had somewhat of a complacent attitude about satellite security, because physical access was basically impossible once the satellite was launched.

“Now we know that our key infrastructure is at risk on the ground as it is in space, from both physical and cyber-threats,” Melroy stated.

The Real Threats to Space Today

Attacks against space-based infrastructure including satellites are not theoretical either.

Melroy noted that the simplest type of attack is a Denial of Service (DoS) which is essentially a signal jamming activity. She added that it already happens now, sometimes inadvertently, that a space-based signal is blocked. There is also a more limited risk that a data transmissi ..

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