T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing from N2K CyberWire is your source for understanding the critical security connections between space and Earth, linking the technologies, policies, and organizations shaping non-terrestrial networks and the expanded attack surface.
Each week, we cover space and cyber developments that bridge technology, commerce, and innovation. We are the cybersecurity industry's source for understanding how space-based infrastructure reshapes digital networks, risk, and resilience globally.
T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing publishes every Sunday alongside the free Signals and Space newsletter covering the intersection of cybersecurity and space.
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Recent Episodes
Space cybersecurity starts on the ground.
Though spacecraft are important, space cybersecurity extends well beyond these assets touching ground stations, mission-control assets, and other critical components. Host Maria Varmazis speaks with Milenk Starcevic, Head of Cybersecurity at Vision Space, and Andrzej “Andy” Olchawa, Senior Cybersecurity Engineer also at Vision Space, about the broader space cybersecurity attack surface. By considering all aspects of a space mission, both in orbit and on the ground, cybersecurity professionals can better understand where vulnerabilities exist and what measures can be taken to reduce risk.
TranscriptDefending Space as Critical Infrastructure.
Space infrastructure has become an increasingly important part of everyday life, which has also made it an increasingly attractive target for exploitation. Host Maria Varmazis and Sean MacKirdy, Area Vice President for the National Security vertical at Elastic Government Solutions, sit down to discuss how space stakeholders need to reevaluate their approach to securing space systems. As space systems continue to grow more important, malicious actors are going to look to target them more often. By adopting a stronger universal framework and a consistent way to interpret data across all spacecraft, space cybersecurity practitioners will be able to standardize their practices and create more effective and timely responses.
TranscriptSpace's cybersecurity policy problem.
As space becomes increasingly connected and autonomous, effective cybersecurity policy is struggling to keep pace. Host Maria Varmazis and Dr. Mac McGuire sit down to discuss the limitations of current approaches for managing space cyber risks and what the industry is lacking. The two discuss how the space incidents have the potential to significantly impact astronauts by disrupting oxygen systems, thermal regulation, and telemetry.
TranscriptWhen hackers control the clock.
The accurate timing data from spacecraft has become an invaluable tool for nearly every critical infrastructure sector and a greater target for malicious actors. Host Maria Varmazis and Andy Davis, Global Research Director at the NCC Group, discuss the importance of timing in space. The two look at how timing systems have continued to grow more important in everyday life and why attackers have begun to increasingly exploit these critical services.
TranscriptClosing the space-cyber workforce gap.
Despite the space sector's consistent growth and greater importance as a critical infrastructure sector, finding cybersecurity talent is still proving to be a challenge. Host Maria Varmazis and Nick Cohen, Principal Engineer at the Aerospace Corporation, sat down to discuss the current state of space's cybersecurity workforce. The two look at how the existing workforce is not large enough to effectively cover the industry and its infrastructure and how solutions like the Aerospace Village at DEF CON 34 have been aiming to address expertise shortcomings.
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