Exploring the new national security and economic realities of The New Space Rush will be the closing keynote discussion with Lisa Costa, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the US Space Force at OODAcon 2023.

Following is a compilation of recent OODA Analysis of the future of space, national security, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning – the implications of which OODA CTO Bob Gourley will be discussing with Costa next week.

Space, National Security, Cybersecurity and AI/ML

“As the United States moves to establish space as an operational domain and seeks to support a space economy, there are corresponding challenges to addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats to the sector.”

National Security

What To Do About The U.S. Intelligence Community Warning on Safeguarding The Space Industry:  The ODNI’s Counterintelligence Center (the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) and the FBI and USAF issued a joint bulletin designed to raise awareness of threats to the U.S. space industry. This bulletin conveys important information that should be read and acted upon by any in the U.S. space industry. The government is doing us all a huge service by providing this warning.  We note, however, that the government recommendations on what to do about the threat fall short. There are some big recommendations the government should have made but didn’t, perhaps because they don’t really know how business works or perhaps they are hamstrung by bureaucracy. We discuss this more in our recommendations at the bottom of this post.

Securing Space: The Next Frontier for Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development:  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) held a webinar on July 19 to focus on cybersecurity vulnerabilities and challenges related to the space economy:  “As the United States moves to establish space as an operational domain and seeks to support a space economy, there are corresponding challenges to addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and threats to the sector. While many existing cybersecurity principles and practices remain applicable to space as an emerging commercial critical infrastructure sector, there are many nuances and specialties that will require augmenting existing cybersecurity education and training content and learning experiences, and requirements for new work roles or competency areas are likely to emerge.”  Led by NIST, NICE is a partnership between government, academia, and the private sector focused on cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. It is designed to support the country’s ability to address current and future cybersecurity challenges through standards and best practices. NICE’s mission is to energize and promote a robust network and an ecosystem of cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development. Learn more about NICE and its work.

Space and the Future of National Security:  The future of space is of keen strategic interest here at OODA Loop.  As we jumpstarted our research efforts for 2023,  we compiled our research, analysis, risk awareness, pattern recognition, and sensemaking efforts over the course of 2022 related to the future of space and its impact on cybersecurity and national security, and the future of American competitiveness.

Cybersecurity

Space Force Squadron Activated to Target Adversary Satellites:  The United States Space Force activated the 75th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (ISRS) on Aug. 11 at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado – a squadron dedicated to targeting adversary satellites (consistent with the potential for a global increase in the military ability to monitor adversary capabilities in Earth’s orbit).

For the First Time, DEFCON 2023 “Hack-A-Sat” Includes a Real-time Cubesat Orbiting Space:   At DEFCON 2023, “the U.S. military staged a contest in which competing teams of white-hat hackers will, for the first time ever, try to penetrate and take over computer systems on a satellite actually in orbit.  It took four years, but “this year, we are in space for real,” said Steve Colenzo, Technology Transfer Lead for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Information Directorate in Rome, New York, and one of the contest organizers.” The Hack-A-Sat 4 capture-the-flag contest is timely in 2023, as satellite security emerged as a national security concern after a cyberattack of the Viasat KA-SAT European satellite network in 2022 and a new hacking group attacked a Russian telecom satellite in support of Prigozhin’s Wagner Group soon aftrer the coup crisis in Russia earlier this year.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML)

Are the Governance of Machine Learning and the Future of Space One and the Same?:  The moral and ethical issues surrounding the exponential growth of machine learning  – and how they will evolve into a framework for the governance of machine learning systems and commercial applications  – are as challenging as any of the tough issues a business may face in this current climate of multiple simultaneous crises.  The baseline legal and business risks are at times difficult to discern when considering the deployment of AI.  How do you develop an AI system when taxonomies, mitigations, terminology, frameworks, and governance are evolving on a parallel track?  The following Air Force and Space Force projects are a window into the potential of generative AI in the governance of commercial space and the use of automation to improve the security compliance process in software development.  This mandate to “secure the software used to handle space data more efficiently” is also illustrative of the “Secure by Design” approach advocated by CISA’s Jen Easterly and the recently released  2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy.  Both projects exemplify “how the military and industry partners are using innovative technologies to increase the efficiency of certain critical processes.”

Additional OODA Loop Resources

Commercial Space: Innovation, Regulation, and International Collaboration:   The upcoming OODAcon 2023 panel – “The Space Edge – Defining New Opportunities, Economies, and Risks” – will dig deep into the emerging opportunities, economies, and risks associated with the rapid development of space-based technologies, resource acquisition, and shift from the public to private sector.  After decades of stagnation, space innovation keeps pushing the boundaries of the possible with new firsts emerging on a monthly basis. Following is a compilation of OODA Loop original analysis and resources on the revolution evolution of the Commercial Space industry sector.

Space Exploration Milestones of Note in 2023:  A compilation of the space exploration milestones featured here at OODA Loop in 2023.

For additional OODA Loops News Briefs and Original Analysis on Space Exploration, go to OODA Loop | Space

The Executive’s Guide to Space

The rapid pace of innovation in space is producing real capabilities which can be leveraged for businesses in every sector of the economy. There is a growing excitement over the many developments in the space industry, giving rise to many questions about how these developments will impact markets overall. This guide is meant to assist strategic planners in assessing developments in the space sector. For more see:  The Executive’s Guide To Commercial Use of Space

Security In Space and Security of Space

The last decade has seen an incredible increase in the commercial use of space. Businesses and individual consumers now leverage space solutions that are so integrated into our systems that they seem invisible. Some of these services include: Communications, including very high-speed low latency communications to distant and mobile users. Learn more at: OODA Research Report: What Business Needs To Know About Security In Space Also see: Is Space Critical Infrastructure, and the special report on Cyber Threats to Project Artemis, and Mitigating Threats To Commercial Space Satellites