Steve Hawkins Discusses Space and Intel Cybersecurity

As the space community knows all too well, the NASA OIG recently testified before Congress about the many cyber attacks that NASA has experienced over the past several years, and some of them are pretty alarming. In one example, they found six computer servers that controlled NASA spacecraft had vulnerabilities that would allow a remote attacker to take control of a satellite (Martin, 2012).

With the emphasis on the technology versus the security protection, many existing space systems are not protected and the vulnerabilities found at NASA exist in many of our nation's operational systems. This coupled with increasing interconnectivity places our space systems at risk.

In the current issue of Geospatial Intelligence Forum - the National Space Symposium issue - ISS vice president Steve Hawkins presents a case for designing in information assurance and cybersecurity capabilities from the start, as retrofitting is costly and the risks from sub-optimized security are incalculable.

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