Frank Lee and Gregory Falco (Johns Hopkins University)

Presenter: Frank Lee

End-of-life (EOL) satellites are space assets that have completed their primary mission. Due to their loss in commercial or scientific priority, EOL satellites are often left in place by operators for an extended period, instead of being decommissioned in a timely manner to free up high-value orbits. This period of inactivity exposes EOL satellites to a lower level of operator vigilance, and therefore, higher level of cyberattack risk. With the recent growth in space activities, this paper estimates there will be up to 5,000 inactive satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) within 5 years, magnifying the space cyber risks and resulting space sustainability challenges. To bolster space cybersecurity, the authors illuminate unique attack vectors against EOL satellites, as well as policy and technical mitigation measures. When part of a constellation, the vulnerability of an EOL satellite has even bigger implications, where a threat actor may use the secondary asset to target primary assets. Ultimately, the active management of EOL satellites is significant for a secure and sustainable LEO infrastructure.

View More Papers

Automata-Based Automated Detection of State Machine Bugs in Protocol...

Paul Fiterau-Brostean (Uppsala University, Sweden), Bengt Jonsson (Uppsala University, Sweden), Konstantinos Sagonas (Uppsala University, Sweden and National Technical University of Athens, Greece), Fredrik Tåquist (Uppsala University, Sweden)

Read More

Lightning Community Shout-Outs to:

(1) Jonathan Petit, Secure ML Performance Benchmark (Qualcomm) (2) David Balenson, The Road to Future Automotive Research Datasets: PIVOT Project and Community Workshop (USC Information Sciences Institute) (3) Jeremy Daily, CyberX Challenge Events (Colorado State University) (4) Mert D. Pesé, DETROIT: Data Collection, Translation and Sharing for Rapid Vehicular App Development (Clemson University) (5) Ning…

Read More

Do Not Give a Dog Bread Every Time He...

Chongqing Lei (Southeast University), Zhen Ling (Southeast University), Yue Zhang (Jinan University), Kai Dong (Southeast University), Kaizheng Liu (Southeast University), Junzhou Luo (Southeast University), Xinwen Fu (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

Read More