Space sector’s cybersecurity dilemma: Pay now or pay later

Cybersecurity for years has been an afterthought in the commercial space industry — viewed more as a line item than a lifeline. But that mindset is starting to shift as satellite networks grow more interconnected, cyber threats more sophisticated and the financial fallout of breaches harder to ignore, industry officials said Oct. 29 at the MilSat Symposium.

Many commercial operators, they noted, see cybersecurity as non-revenue-generating and difficult to monetize, with limited direct return on investment unless required by government contracts or after a high-profile incident.

Joe Bravman, chief engineer at Lynk Global, which is building a satellite-to-mobile-phone constellation that aims to serve as “cell towers in space,” said the divide between commercial and government cyber priorities remains stark. “The needs of the commercial sector and government sector are very different in terms of cyber security,” he said. The government, for example, has to harden systems for war whereas commercial companies that are not under a military contract are not going to spend money on cybersecurity if they don’t have to.

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