Photo: Via Satellite illustration

In the run-up to CyberSat, a key European first when it comes to a space-based cybersecurity competition has taken place in the Netherlands. This was reportedly Europe’s first in-orbit Capture-the-Flag (CTF) cybersecurity competition, and the world’s first live CTF involving multiple satellites.

The competition, CTRL+Space CTF, was put together by D-Orbit, a space logistics and orbital transportation company, mhackeroni, one of Europe’s leading ethical hacking teams and multiple-time world CTF champions, with the support of the ESA Security Cyber Center of Excellence (SCCoE) and the ESA Security Office. D-Orbit announced the completion of the competition, Nov. 6.

The competition attracted significant interest from the cybersecurity community. 559 teams registered for the qualifiers, 299 teams solved at least one challenge, 660 correct flags were submitted across the 25 qualifier challenges prepared by the mhackeroni team. The event’s grand finale took place on November 4 through 6, at ESA ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Center) in the Netherlands, during the Security for Space Systems (3S) conference, where five teams competed in unprecedented live cybersecurity scenarios aboard a real operational spacecraft.

Participants competed in a number of challenges. Firstly, they had to solve security-related scenarios such as interpreting real telemetry data and sending command sequences to an actual spacecraft. Secondly, they had to use the spacecraft data to understand the spacecraft’s attitude and orbital position, which are information critical for satellite control and operational decisions. Also, they had to interact with onboard software to uncover and exploit potential vulnerabilities.

“Cybersecurity has become a fundamental pillar of the new space economy. At D-Orbit, we integrate it from the very first design stages because security cannot be an add-on, it must be built into the DNA of every system we send into orbit,” Grazia Bibiano, country leader for Portugal, D-Orbit said in a statement.