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

Trellis: Robust and Scalable Metadata-private Anonymous Broadcast

Simon Langowski (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Sacha Servan-Schreiber (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Srinivas Devadas (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Read More

BARS: Local Robustness Certification for Deep Learning based Traffic...

Kai Wang (Tsinghua University), Zhiliang Wang (Tsinghua University), Dongqi Han (Tsinghua University), Wenqi Chen (Tsinghua University), Jiahai Yang (Tsinghua University), Xingang Shi (Tsinghua University), Xia Yin (Tsinghua University)

Read More

Brokenwire: Wireless Disruption of CCS Electric Vehicle Charging

Sebastian Köhler (University of Oxford), Richard Baker (University of Oxford), Martin Strohmeier (armasuisse Science + Technology), Ivan Martinovic (University of Oxford)

Read More

Firefly: Spoofing Earth Observation Satellite Data through Radio Overshadowing

Edd Salkield, Sebastian Köhler, Simon Birnbach, Richard Baker (University of Oxford). Martin Strohmeier (armasuisse S+T), Ivan Martinovic (University of Oxford) Presenter: Edd Salkield

Read More