Abstract

Space Communications and Cyber security: Threats, Risks and Solutions

Author(s): Mohammad Hamdi

Space communication is becoming a vital part of national and international infrastructures. Countries are increasingly dependent on global satellite capabilities for national and international infrastructures, which include systems governing the navigation of aircraft and ships, military decision-support systems, financial transactions, and communications through the Internet. Cyber security threats to space communications are a relatively new phenomenon, with increasing connections to the forefront of concern for the critical systems due to the vulnerabilities that such threats may exploit and negatively impact. In fact, such vulnerabilities may affect military command systems, launch systems, communications, telemetry, tracking and command, and mission completion. More importantly, space infrastructures are often used as backup solutions to traditional communication mechanism: consequently, they are not secured by design.