Frank Lee and Gregory Falco (Johns Hopkins University) Presenter: Frank Lee

End-of-life (EOL) satellites are space assets that have completed their primary mission. Due to their loss in commercial or scientific priority, EOL satellites are often left in place by operators for an extended period, instead of being decommissioned in a timely manner to free up high-value orbits. This period of inactivity exposes EOL satellites to a lower level of operator vigilance, and therefore, higher level of cyberattack risk. With the recent growth in space activities, this paper estimates there will be up to 5,000 inactive satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) within 5 years, magnifying the space cyber risks and resulting space sustainability challenges. To bolster space cybersecurity, the authors illuminate unique attack vectors against EOL satellites, as well as policy and technical mitigation measures. When part of a constellation, the vulnerability of an EOL satellite has even bigger implications, where a threat actor may use the secondary asset to target primary assets. Ultimately, the active management of EOL satellites is significant for a secure and sustainable LEO infrastructure.

View More Papers

On the Security of Satellite-Based Air Traffic Control

Tobias Lüscher (ETH Zurich), Martin Strohmeier (Cyber-Defence Campus, armasuisse S+T), Vincent Lenders (Cyber-Defence Campus, armasuisse S+T)

Read More

Analysing Adversarial Threats to Rule-Based Local-Planning Algorithms for Autonomous...

Andrew Roberts (Tallinn University of Technology), Mohsen Malayjerdi (Tallinn University of Technology), Mauro Bellone (Tallinn University of Technology), Olaf Maennel (The University of Adelaide), Ehsan Malayjerdi (Tallinn University of Technology)

Read More

SoundLock: A Novel User Authentication Scheme for VR Devices...

Huadi Zhu (The University of Texas at Arlington), Mingyan Xiao (The University of Texas at Arlington), Demoria Sherman (The University of Texas at Arlington), Ming Li (The University of Texas at Arlington)

Read More

OBSan: An Out-Of-Bound Sanitizer to Harden DNN Executables

Yanzuo Chen (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Yuanyuan Yuan (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Shuai Wang (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Read More