CYBER & SPACE SECURITY: ECCO QUALI SONO LE NUOVE SFIDE

I had to take note that Space (around the Earth) no longer exists. Or at least the Space I remember no longer exists. Technological innovations in the field of materials, fuels, driving systems, etc. etc. and all network technologies, have incorporated space making it less mythical and rather a territory to be anthropized.

Nowadays the movie "First Man" (first man on the moon) is in italian theaters and I noticed that while I want to see the film, maybe to reconcile with my adolescence, my seventeen year old son does not have the same interest in it. For him space is Elon Musk with his Space X, a shuttle of a private entrepreneur who leaves Earth, goes into space and returns from where he left, all in an automatic way.

Space is also no longer the shared territory of Humanity, and the International Space Station, which at best represents the desire of Man to discover this domain, sooner or later will see initiatives of sovereignty and the the astronauts will divide, according to nationalities, the dining room and even toilets.

Except for the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) of Ronald Regan, known as Space Shield, the neutrality of Space as a place of research has vanished, now it is becoming a commercial domain and therefore a domain where companies have to compete to acquire a dominant position in a geopolitical game, or market to sell rooms in Hotel for the Christmas holidays.

The majority of the satellites in orbit are a patchwork of components to which different countries have worked, without any supply chain cybersecurity control, rather based on the mutual trust that normally exists between scientists and researchers, without any fear of being hacked, and many of them were built when the Internet was a baby.

But even military satellites, spy satellites, designed and built many years ago, did not care much about information security, the main concerns were to prevent an enemy satellite from spraying paint on the lenses, to neutralize the vision.

The current situation is that Space Agencies, the satellite industry, cybersecurity researchers, nongovernmental bodies, and intergovernmental satellite organizations show increasing awareness of the space cybersecurity challenge. Nevertheless, experts are worried. NASA’s former chief information security officer, Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz, warned that “it’s a matter of time before someone hacks into something in space.”

And in 2016 Chatham House's David Livingstone asserted that "people are just shuffling. . . paper around "and suggested that only" a disaster "might catalyze serious action.

In this Research paper of  Chatman House 9/2016 : Space, the Final Frontier for Cybersecurity? the researchers described the following scenario :

Much of the world’s critical infrastructure – such as communications, air transport, maritime trade, financial and other business services, weather and environmental monitoring and defence systems – depends on the space infrastructure, including satellites, ground stations and data links at national, regional and international levels.

• Satellites and other space assets, just like other parts of the digitized critical infrastructure, are vulnerable to cyberattack. Cyber vulnerabilities in space therefore pose serious risks for ground- based critical infrastructure, and insecurities in the space environment will hinder economic development and increase the risks to society.
• Cyberattacks on satellites can include jamming, spoofing and hacking attacks on communication networks; targeting control systems or mission packages; and attacks on the ground infrastructure such as satellite control centres. Possible cyberthreats against space-based systems include state- to-state and military actions; well-resourced organized criminal elements seeking financial gain; terrorist groups wishing to promote their causes, even up to the catastrophic level of cascading satellite collisions; and individual hackers who want to fanfare their skills.
• The pace at which technology evolves makes it hard, or even impossible, to devise a timely response to space cyberthreats. Humans too are affected by ‘digital ageing’ and legacy issues, and younger people use space-based and cyber communications in ways that make it difficult for older generations – and thus by implication some senior decision-makers – to fully understand the range of technologies and threats.
• Technology alone cannot provide the basis for policymaking on cybersecurity. Entirely or largely technological approaches do not have the breadth or depth to allow comprehensive participation, and would exclude many stakeholders who could otherwise contribute usefully to responses to the variety of threats propagated through the internet

Then… in 1989 prof Isaac Ben Israel wrote an article: Philosophy and methodology of intelligence: The logic of estimate process, and in 2018 the book: Intelligence Analysis Understanding Reality in an Era of Dramatic Changes  where on the introduction he defines four challenges:

• The Challenge of Emergence
• The Challenge of Disappearance
• The Challenge of Speed
• The Challenge of Constant Change

The pillars was two statements:

• The primary role of intelligence analysis is clarifying reality - current and future, and understanding it. This definition assumes, of course, the existence of such a reality that can be clarified and understood. It rejects other approaches, which view the production of intelligence knowledge as a process of creating or building a new reality, and not as the reflection, disclosure or assessment of an existing or future reality. It obviously rejects approaches that deny, in principle, the existence of a reality that is not dependent on our interpretation.
• The role of analysis is practical and not theoretical. It is entirely directed towards the process of policy making, operational planning and force building. As an institution for clarifying and understanding reality, intelligence analysis is the primary learning generator about the enemy and the environment. In many cases, it also lays the ground for decision making processes, and assumes an active and central role in discussions regarding these issues. Another significant role of intelligence analysis is to shape the overall intelligence effort, with an emphasis on collection.

How can we clarify the reality of cyber attacks in space? In the next four years almost another billion of people will be connected to the Internet and when the 5G will be realized many new users of space services, like the simple GPS or Netflix, will be in Africa or India, where cybersecurity is not the priority, so to the face the four challenges I mentioned before, will become really high. Is the time that the West  launch a common program on Artificial Intelligence for space defense?

I think that the “attack surface” of space activities is expanding rapidly, but governments and industry are not taking adequate action or so it appeare.

*Direttore Generale Link Campus University

Sintesi in italiano:

Ho dovuto prendere atto che lo Spazio (quello attorno alla Terra) non esiste più. O almeno lo spazio che ricordo non esiste più. Le innovazioni tecnologiche nel campo dei materiali, dei combustibili, dei sistemi di guida, ecc. in più tutte le tecnologie di rete, hanno incorporato lo spazio rendendolo meno mitico e piuttosto un territorio da antropizzare.

Oggi il film "First Man" (il primo uomo sulla luna) è nei cinema italiani e ho notato che mentre voglio vedere il film, forse per riconciliarmi con la mia adolescenza, mio ​​figlio di diciassette anni non ha lo stesso interesse in esso. Per lui lo spazio è Elon Musk con il suo Space X, una navetta di un imprenditore che lascia la Terra, va nello spazio e ritorna da dove è partita, tutto in modo automatico.

Lo spazio non è più il territorio condiviso dell'Umanità e la Stazione Spaziale Internazionale, che rappresenta al meglio il desiderio dell'uomo di scoprire questo dominio; prima o poi vedrà iniziative di sovranità e gli astronauti si divideranno, secondo le nazionalità, sala da pranzo e anche servizi igienici.

Ad eccezione della Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) di Ronald Regan, nota come Space Shield, la neutralità di Space come luogo di ricerca è svanita, ora sta diventando un dominio commerciale e quindi un dominio in cui le aziende devono competere per acquisire una posizione dominante nel gioco geopolitico o nel mercato per vendere camere in hotel per le future vacanze di Natale.

La maggior parte dei satelliti in orbita è un mosaico di componenti a cui hanno lavorato diversi paesi, senza alcun controllo della cibersicurezza della supply chain, piuttosto basato sulla fiducia reciproca che normalmente esiste tra scienziati e ricercatori, senza alcuna paura di essere hackerati e molti sono stati costruiti quando Internet era un bambino.

Ma anche i satelliti militari, i satelliti spia, progettati e costruiti molti anni fa, non si curavano molto della sicurezza delle informazioni, le preoccupazioni principali erano di impedire a un satellite nemico di spruzzare vernice sulle lenti, di neutralizzare la visione.

La situazione attuale è che le agenzie spaziali, l'industria satellitare, i ricercatori sulla sicurezza informatica, gli organismi non governativi e le organizzazioni intergovernative dei satelliti mostrano una crescente consapevolezza della sfida della sicurezza informatica spaziale. Tuttavia, gli esperti sono preoccupati. L'ex capo della sicurezza delle informazioni della NASA, Jeanette Hanna-Ruiz, ha sottolineato che "è una questione di tempo prima che qualcuno hackeri qualcosa nello spazio".

E nel 2016 David Livingstone di Chatham House ha affermato che "la gente sta solo muovendo... la carta in giro" e ha sottolineato che solo "un disastro" potrebbe catalizzare un'azione seria.

Come possiamo comprendere e contrastare la possibilità  degli attacchi informatici nello spazio, dallo spazio e sulle infrastrutture a terra dello spazio? Nei prossimi quattro anni quasi un altro miliardo di persone sarà connesso a Internet e quando il 5G sarà realizzato molti nuovi utenti di servizi spaziali, come il semplice GPS o Netflix, saranno in Africa o in India, dove la sicurezza informatica non è la priorità; così le quattro sfide che ho citato prima, diventeranno davvero alte. È il momento in cui l'Occidente lanci un programma comune sull'intelligenza artificiale per la difesa spaziale?

Penso che la "superficie di attacco" delle attività spaziali si stia espandendo rapidamente ma i governi e l'industria non stanno prendendo provvedimenti adeguati.