CISA Forms Working Group to Protect Critical Space Systems

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has formed a group consisting of government and industry members that will develop strategies to protect space systems supporting the nation’s critical infrastructure.

The Space Systems Critical Infrastructure Working Group will work towards making commercial space systems more resilient and secure.

Efforts will be focused on addressing areas that need improvements across the government and private sector, as well as recommending ways to manage risk to space-based assets and critical functions, CISA said.

According to CISA Acting Director Brandon Wales, the group will lay the foundation for the nation’s collective defense against current and emerging threats.

Jim Platt, chief of strategic defense initiatives at CISA, will be leading the group alongside John Galer, assistant vice president of the National Security Space, Aerospace Industries Association.

They will lead a mix of government and industry members from the communications, critical manufacturing, defense industrial base, information technology, and transportation sectors. Some of the industry executives come from leading-edge satellite and space asset infrastructure firms.

The goal of the working group aligns with a Trump-era directive that is currently under review by the Biden administration.

Space Policy Directive 5, which was issued last September, outlines ways to secure space systems from cybersecurity threats.

The original directive lists five cybersecurity principles for space systems. These include integrating risk-based, cybersecurity-informed engineering into space systems and making sure that they have capabilities to protect against unauthorized access and communications jamming and spoofing.