Tag Archive for: space

Cybersecurity Best Practice Is Critical for Winning the New Space Race

/in


As the low Earth orbit market prepares to double over the next
five years, to the tune of around $20 billion, we sit on the edge of a new
space race. However, amid rapidly falling launch costs and a host of
technological advancements, it’s safe to say that this race is heading into new
territory.

These digitizations relate to the role of sensors and data
processing, and a plethora of applications that aid ground control and
observation operations.

One segment of the race that is still yet to pick up speed,
however, relates to cybersecurity. The implications of attacks on satellites
are self-evident, but the resilience and protection of these galactical systems
require further exploration and a mass team effort.

Familiarity in Space

The difficulties that come with protecting devices in space comprize
multiple complex systems within systems — each playing different roles and
being deployed by different players.

Satellites are effectively just platforms with embedded systems
and interfaces, including radio communications, telemetry tracking control
systems, and ground segment connections. These are all essentially enterprise
networks, but that also makes them avenues of opportunity for
cybercriminals.

These systems are underpinned by a complex supply chain — another
prime target for attackers, as we’ve seen on the ground through examples like
SolarWinds, where the supply chain served as a gateway to all other interfaces.

Not only does this make systems in space more familiar than you
might think, it also makes them more challenging to defend.

As such, the satellite door is potentially being left ajar to
hacktivists, financial crusaders, and state-acting spies who can use their significant resources to target other countries’ prized
space assets.

The “How” and “Why” of Space Attacks

Why attack space when there are systems on land?

The answer is twofold, based on how familiar these satellite
platforms actually are, and what attackers stand to gain by infiltrating them.

Addressing the former, “under the hood” of a satellite
is a platform. More often than not, the embedded system within that platform
may be as recognizable as a Linux operating system. And while the operations…

Source…

Air and Space Forces raise bonus amounts for technically trained cyber troops

/in


A senior airman with five years in cyber warfare is eligible for an $83,610 bonus for re-enlisting for six years, the same amount due airmen in the pararescue, combat control and tactical air control party fields.

A senior airman with five years in cyber warfare is eligible for an $83,610 bonus for re-enlisting for six years, the same amount due airmen in the pararescue, combat control and tactical air control party fields. (J.M. Eddins Jr./U.S. Air Force)

The Air Force and Space Force are prepared to pay a premium to keep their cyber-trained professionals wearing blue, according to the updated list of bonus-eligible career fields.

Released Sept. 8, that list added two cyber-related career specialties for a total of 65 careers eligible for a re-enlistment bonus, including five existing cyber fields whose bonus potentials also increased.

“This [Selective Retention Bonus] addition is an acknowledgement of extreme demand for the advanced skills and talent within the targeted cyber specialties, as well as their criticality to the future force,” Air Force spokeswomen Laurel Falls told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday.

The largest bonus bumps within the cyber fields went to the cyber warfare and defense specialties. Airmen who re-up in those fields would receive the same amount as those in special tactics jobs, historically the riskiest jobs, whose practitioners were paid the highest bonuses.

A senior airman with five years in cyber warfare is eligible for an $83,610 bonus for re-enlisting for six years, the same amount airmen in the pararescue, combat control and tactical air control party fields.

“For some cyber specialties, cumulative individual training costs reach close to one million dollars and the unique National Defense experiences that further develop these member’s cyber proficiency are nearly incalculable,” Falls said.

The Air Force created cyber warfare operations as a career field in 2010. The career field remains open only to enlisted personnel serving in information technology professions.

Specialists in this field ensure computer networks function properly and remain secure from outside intrusion, according to the Air Force website.

Source…

China accuses United States of hacking top space and aviation university

/in


What just happened? China is regularly accused of using state-sponsored hackers to infiltrate American systems, government agencies, and organizations, but the Asian country claims the US is far from innocent when it comes to engaging in these sort of activities. The latest allegation is that the NSA hacked a government-funded university that specializes in aviation, aerospace, and navigation studies.

According to a statement from China’s National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center (CNCERT/CC), the NSA’s Office of Tailored Access Operations (TAO) sent phishing emails to teachers and students at Northwestern Polytechnical University in an attempt to steal data and personal information.

As with other phishing campaigns, the goal was to trick targets into clicking malicious links that would allow the TAO to steal email login details. The messages’ themes included scientific evaluation, thesis defense, and information on foreign travel.

According to The Global Times, a publication owned by the Chinese communist party, a team from CNCERT/CC and 360 Security Technology Inc. analyzed trojan samples from the university’s information systems after an attack was reported in June. They traced the hacks back to the TAO.

Chinese president Xi Jinping

China says the NSA was behind more than 10,000 “vicious” cyberattacks on targets within the country in recent years, collecting more than 140 GB of high-value data in the process.

The US has a long history of throwing hacking accusations at China. The CISA, NSA, and FBI issued an alert in June claiming Chinese state-backed hackers are using unpatched consumer routers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices to gain access to the infrastructure of major telecommunications companies, sending their traffic to Chinese servers.

In February, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray said China is behind more cyberattacks on the US than all other nations combined. He added that, at the time, the FBI was investigating 2,000 cases of Chinese attacks. He cited the Microsoft Exchange hack, which impacted the networks of 10,000 American companies, as an example of the damage Chinese hackers can cause the US…

Source…

Into the ‘outernet’: Secure ‘internet in space’ key to future Space Force hybrid architecture

/in


T1TL mesh constellation_Northrop Grumman.

The Space Development Agency will begin launching its Tranche 1 Transport Layer communications mesh network in 2024. (Image: Northrop Grumman)

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has taken the first steps toward a future “hybrid space architecture” comprising military and commercial satellites in multiple orbits, moving to design a foundational cyber-protected network integration capability — i.e., a hack-proof (or close to it anyway) “internet in space,” officials say.

The hybrid space architecture concept is an outgrowth of Space Force chief Gen. Jay Raymond’s 2020 “Vision for Enterprise Satellite Communications,” first reported by Breaking Defense. And while various experimental efforts to validate the concept of a space-based internet for military users have been ongoing since then, the Defense Department and the Space Force only recently have fully embraced the concept and moved to coordinate a holistic effort to design and develop the capabilities need to substantiate it.

The Space Force’s Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC), DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU),  the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Space Development Agency (SDA) now are cooperating in this potentially revolutionary effort, officials involved told Breaking Defense, which in turn will be a key to enabling Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) for future high-speed, information-centric warfare across the air, land, sea, space and cyber domains. The concept would see concentric circles of satellite communications (SATCOM) networks — highly encrypted military constellations, slightly less secure SATCOM provided by allies, and unclassified commercial constellations.

Recently SWAC has made progress in developing the overarching space data transport “force design” for the concept. Meanwhile, DIU’s project with AFRL, which is designing the glue that will patch the disparate SATCOM networks together, just last week announced concrete steps as well, officials involved said.

And while SDA has already begun to launch a constellation of small satellites in Low Earth Orbit, called the Transport Layer, to allow high speed, low latency, internet-capable data communications, those…

Source…