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Administration, Private Sector Meet On Space Systems Cybersecurity

By Calvin Biesecker | March 31, 2023
      Photo: Via Satellite

      Photo: Via Satellite

      This past week, senior Biden administration officials and industry representatives met in a forum to discuss cyber threats and how to strengthen cybersecurity across the ecosystem of space systems and committed to additional meetings, workshops and other efforts in the coming months.

      The March 28 forum was hosted by the White House Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) and the National Space Council as part of a series of high-level meetings hosted by ONCD to examine and strengthen cybersecurity in different sectors with a goal to drive cybersecurity investments across the respective ecosystems. Last October, the office and relevant public and private stakeholders met to discuss cybersecurity for electric vehicles and the related supply chains.

      Next up, the ONCD will host workshops in “regional hubs for U.S. space industry innovations” to get industry feedback on current cybersecurity policies for space systems, including Space Policy Directive-5, and where additional guidance is needed, the ONCD said on March 29 in a readout of the forum.

      The Department of Commerce will host a Space Cybersecurity Symposium in Washington, D.C., that will include public and private space and cybersecurity stakeholders. The readout also said that the National Institute of Standards and Technology this fiscal year will complete its report on cybersecurity for commercial satellite operations. The report will provide a method to apply NIST’s voluntary Cybersecurity Framework to commercial space activities.

      The readout doesn’t list the industry representatives that attended the Space Forum but said they include the satellite communications, launch, imagery, cloud and data, cross-functional defense systems and services, and venture capital elements of the space industry.