Space Force to Launch Cybersecurity Certification Program for Commercial Satellites

The U.S. Space Force is reportedly close to launching a new cybersecurity certification process for operators of commercial communications satellites constellations.

Jared Reece, program analyst at the Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office, said the goal is to ensure that industry can be trusted to conduct proper cybersecurity assessments of their own systems, Breaking Defense reported Thursday.

Reece said the requirements would provide operators enough room to keep coming up with innovative technologies.

“Internally with our office, there’s a desire to be more agnostic, so when we go out with acquisitions we really want to let industry be creative in their proposals,” he said during the Satellite 2021 conference.

Reece said CSCO is considering creating distinct requirements for imagery and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellite networks.

The certification process will be implemented as part of an update to the Infrastructure Asset Pre-Assessment program that CSCO began developing in 2019.

CSCO officially launched the IA-PRE program in June 2020 to enhance the security posture of current and future commercial satellite communications procurements for the defense community.

The goal is to reduce the commercial satellite communications sector’s administrative burden on both the U.S. government and its industry partners.

One of IA-PRE’s tasks is to maintain an “approved product list” of commercial satellite communications assets that meet the federal cybersecurity standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

NIST senior analyst Dianne Poster said the institute’s satellite cybersecurity framework is based on the Trump administration’s Space Policy Directive-5, a directive aimed at pressuring commercial operators to protect their 5G-capable systems against jamming and spoofing, Breaking Defense reported.