How are we dependent on space?

Houston, we have a problem with our critical infrastructure in space. While our individual dependency on space has also grown, safeguarding space still remains an issue. Critical infrastructure and services like 5G connectivity and GPS navigation rely on space-based assets to carry out their daily functioning. This dependency makes space-based assets potential targets for description and espionage by strategic adversaries, as well as a potential target for criminal groups. So how can we defend and secure this critical backbone? In many ways, questions of securing critical infrastructure and bolstering cybersecurity in space systems are similar to those we face in securing terrestrial assets. But are there key differences in how we must secure space systems? What are those similarities and differences? Who has jurisdiction? Where do we still have gaps, both in terms of our own capabilities and understanding the threats posed by adversaries?

The Role of Satellites in 5G Networks

Satellites will play a key role in determining our collective 5G future. How we integrate terrestrial and space-based components will determine the type and degree of connectivity 5G networks enable in practice across the United States and around the world, rather than what they could have enabled in theory.

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Cybersecurity on the Final Frontier: Protecting Our Critical Space Assets from Cyber Threats

Our overwhelming reliance on space technology puts us in a precarious position. Like any other increasingly digitized critical infrastructure, satellites and other space-based assets are vulnerable to cyberattacks. These concerns are no longer merely hypothetical and, if not mitigated, could interfere with the space-enabled technology we take for granted in our day-to-day lives as well as national security and global economic development broadly.

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