This note was part of the following paper: Cybersecurity Protections for Spacecraft: A Threat Based Approach
As an expansion to the earlier defense-in-depth graphic, figure below provides a breakout of spacecraft security principles that can aid in resilience and cyber protections. For the spacecraft, most security is geared around cryptography on the command link, Transmission Security (TRANSEC), and some Telecommunications Electronics Materials Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions (TEMPEST) controls. The items highlighted in red are where cyber gaps most likely reside:
Questions to ask
- Because the satellite most likely run outdated software, is it exploitable?
- Can we jam or interrupt the signal by sending huge amount of payloads?
- Some satellites are still running old Windows XP, true or not?
- If a satellite is arm with propulsion, can it be used to collapse into other satellites?
- Can an exploited satellite be used as C2 server?