Trump Administration Issues Directive Aimed At Enhancing Cybersecurity In Space

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Today, the Trump administration released its fifth Space Policy Directive, this one designed to come up with a list of best practices for the space industry on how to protect their spacecraft from cyber threats. The goal is to encourage the government and space industry to create their space vehicles with cybersecurity plans in place, incorporating tools like encryption software and other protections when designing, building, and operating their vehicles. [...] To combat these threats, Space Policy Directive 5 lays out guidelines that companies should try to adhere to as they launch satellites and other vehicles to space. The administration is recommending operators use various types of software to ensure that the data they receive from their spacecraft is encrypted. The directive also encourages companies to use trusted supply chains and oversee the safety of their ground systems -- the facilities they use to send signals and retrieve data from their spacecraft. The report also recommends protecting against jamming and spoofing of satellites. "Sometimes the jamming can be fairly crude; other cases, some of the spoofing can be fairly sophisticated if somebody's trying to get on board," one official said. "So there's a whole range of things that you need to look at kind of end-to-end." Ultimately, the directive says that government agencies should work with commercial companies to further refine what these best cybersecurity practices should be, especially since many in the space industry already implement these strategies when building and launching vehicles. [...] SPD-5 is the latest policy directive from the Trump administration designed to shape the U.S. space agenda. Trump's first directive instructed NASA to send humans back to the Moon, while other directives have focused on coming up with a way to oversee space traffic and streamlining regulations for space licenses.

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