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Winning the Space-Cyber War Requires Continuous Investment, Vigilance, and Collaboration
In the mid-2000s, when the commercial space sector had significantly fewer active systems than today, space cybersecurity was not a major concern for systems engineers. Instead, the focus was on terrestrial threats, which spurred aggressive development of automated, multi-layered defenses for terrestrial systems.

Many defensive techniques were too immature for space or were sidelined to optimize mission performance, as space systems were thought to be “air-gapped” from danger. Today’s evolved space environment includes over 12,000 active satellites transmitting vast bandwidth to low-cost user terminals at light-speed via laser crosslinks. Collectively, these systems offer a full range of global communications services…[continued]