Cybersecurity

RESTON, VIRGINIA — The White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) is taking a particular look at cybersecurity for space systems, and seeking industry collaboration to inform policy in this area. Nicholas Leiserson, assistant national cyber director for Cyber Policy and Programs for ONCD gave a keynote address on Monday at CyberSatGov about...

It’s no secret that advancements in AI are growing in parallel with the ambitions of foreign adversaries. Although not limited to state actors, the most obvious threats to Western cyber infrastructure are China and Russia – countries with antagonistic tendencies who happen to be launching inspector satellites into space. Any number of Cold War analogies...

Xage Security on Wednesday said it has received a $17 million contract from the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command to provide a cybersecurity platform to protect the service’s ground and space-based systems and to ensure the integrity of data exchanged from the source or network edge to the consumer. Xage, which is based in Palo...

SpiderOak has completed a demonstration of its OrbitSecure technology onboard the International Space Station, successfully demonstrating sending and receiving secure ops traffic between ground and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO).  SpiderOak announced the successful demo on Wednesday, which was done with Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Snowcone edge computing device provided by Axiom Space. Communication to the space...

Orbit Communications Systems has unveiled cybersecurity enhancements for its Gaia100 Earth observation (EO) systems. The company announced Aug. 3 that it is introducing NetShroud+ for these systems. The NetShroud+ solution protects the remotely located ground stations from potential local or remote cyber-attacks in order to guarantee that the antenna will point to the Low-Earth Orbit...

Thales Alenia Space signed new contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the ground mission segment for Galileo Second Generation (GSG) and for system engineering activities, and two contracts for cybersecurity. The contracts for ground mission segment and system engineering activities are worth 300 million euros ($333 million) and the cyber awards are worth...

SpiderOak has demonstrated its OrbitSecure cybersecurity software in space on a Ball Aerospace prototype payload, the company announced June 22.  The OrbitSecure cybersecurity software uses encryption and distributed-ledger software to operate a decentralized key management system. The software has been tested on the ground, but this was the first test in space. The prototype payload...

ST. LOUIS — As commercial companies increasingly put more computing power on their satellites and related systems, there needs to be a commitment by industry and users to bolster the cybersecurity of these technologies, the Defense Department’s top information officer said on Wednesday. “Let’s have cybersecurity on those capabilities, whether it’s on the downlink, whether...

Satellite cybersecurity company SpiderOak has received new investments from Accenture Ventures, Raytheon Technologies‘ RTX Ventures, and Stellar Ventures — beyond the company’s $16.4 million Series C round closed in January. The company said this investment will fund the company’s deployment of its zero-trust data security solutions for space missions. SpiderOak plans to extend its OrbitSecure software...

Two U.S. Senators have reintroduced legislation to help protect commercial satellite operators from cyber attacks — an issue that has gained in prominence after the hack on Viasat’s KA-SAT network in Ukraine. U.S. Senators Gary Peters, D-Mich., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, reintroduced the Satellite Cybersecurity Act on Wednesday. The same lawmakers introduced similar legislation last year that advanced in...