Dr. ing. Marco Lisi (marco.lisi@ieee.org)

Master di II Livello in "Homeland Security" Università degli Studi Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, A. A. 2014-2015

SECURITY IN SATELLITE SYSTEMS

01/06/2015

Summary All critical infrastructures of our society rely on ICT

systems; their confidentiality, availability, integrity, continuity and quality of service have to be guaranteed and protected

Satellite systems, integrated into world-wide ICT infrastructures, are more and more vulnerable to intentional and non-intentional threats

Satellite security is often limited to encryption and anti-jamming technologies, but satellite ground segments are exposed to the same type of threats typically experienced by terrestrial information systems

Information security is no longer a “nice to have”, but rather a “must have” option.

01/06/2015

Satellite Integration in Network-Centric Architectures

01/06/2015

Satellite Pirating

The most famous case of satellite pirating is that of John MacDougall, alias “Captain Midnight”, who was able in 1986 to superimpose his messages onto a commercial DTH TV channel.

01/06/2015

Satellite System Components and Links

01/06/2015

Unintentional Threats to Satellite Systems

01/06/2015

Intentional Threats to Satellite Systems

01/06/2015

Satellite Systems: Threats and Countermeasures

01/06/2015

Spacecraft Communications Infrastructure

01/06/2015

Space Communications Standards

The European Space Agency (ESA) is integrating security features into its space communications standards

ESA communications with its spacecrafts are based on the CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) Packet TM/TC Protocol Family, that does not presently integrate default security features

CCSDS, however, has proposed new standards (Space Communication Protocol Standards, SCPS) providing built-in security support functions.

01/06/2015

Conclusions In a network-centric perspective, satellite systems

need to incorporate standardized and certifiable approaches to information security

So far information security has been perceived as a customized add-on, leading to a variety of security requirements and to a number of proprietary solutions, adopted by space agencies and industries

Certification standards and security solutions for network-centric military systems can be effectively applied to complex, network-centric satellite systems

Information security features, including encryption, keys management and conditional access control, will have to be designed into the network from the beginning, as an integral part of it.