On the third day of India Space Congress 2023, a session was held to discuss the impending cyber threats that loom over space operations worldwide. The theme of the session; Cyber-Security for Space Operations witnessed insightful discussions on the importance of strong cybersecurity to protect critical infrastructure, networks, and satellite systems.
The session was chaired by Rajiv Chetwani, Chief Information Security Officer, DOS/ISRO, Director, DISM, ISRO. While introducing the theme to the panel and the audience memebers, he emphasized “New threats to space connect is caused due to interconnect between space and cyberspace.”
Col KV Kuber, E&Y was the moderator of the session. He said that India is ranked 10th on the global cybersecurity index which indicates that we are very poor in terms of legal measures that we have taken.
Narendra Nath, Joint Secretary National Security Council Secretariat, GOI said, “Cybersecurity and space both are connected. Guidelines and policies are needed for organizations which are designing the products; satellites or launch vehicles.”
“We have multiple earth stations, and not all of them are in our country. What is the sort of control we have on earth stations which are not in our country, and continuously tracking and monitoring the health of satellites? That is why standards should be there, space sectors should decide what kind of standards they would like to apply. Auditors are also required to have domain knowledge in the space sector,” he added.
“Security is also a functional requirement. We are in the process of consultation on cybersecurity aspects. The government of India is planning to take consultation with space sector,” he further said.
“Space and satellites are playing very crucial role in communication on Earth and as an integral part of the communication network as a systems. As we have reliance on space, and satellites are increasing and growing, the essence of security and intelligence and commerce are also exponentially growing,” stated Lt. Col Amandeep Singh, Spatial Domain Expert and Author.
On asking how the military thinks about the cyberspace sector, he replied “Compare to anti-satellite capability, an interference with a satellite through a cyber operation or cyberattacks is far way cheaper, faster and very difficult to trace back. The connectivity of cyber operation with the space operation will make more relevance.”
“Focusing on cyberattack rather than physical attacks on satellites should be given more prominence,” he added.
Suhas Gopinath CEO, Globals said, “In India, cybersecurity is not so advanced. Everything that is connected is vulnerable. The ground stations which are connected to satellites are more vulnerable. There is an element of increased security risk with the advent of quantum computing and penetration of 5G.”
He stated that it is extremely important to make stringent policies to prevent these kinds of actions.
Rajiv concluded, “Standards and information sharing are all important aspects that are need to be considered. The growing companies are working on affordable solutions. Affordability and security don’t come together. Growing companies need reference implementation guide. Forcing standards will not work with them. Industry and government have to work on a collaborative approach.”
