Sep 20, 2026 · 30 min
Space systems face a new critical-infrastructure test
Defending Space as Critical Infrastructure. [T-Minus: Space-Cyber Briefing]
Navigation, communications, and everyday services depend on space systems that operate amid contested conditions, legacy technology, and evolving cyber threats.
- 1Space architecture spans space, link, ground, and user segments, creating interconnected paths for disruption and compromise.
- 2Jamming, spoofing, software-defined radios, and legacy systems complicate defense across contested operational technology environments.
- 3SPARTA and MITRE ATT&CK offer shared structures for mapping threats, normalizing data, and identifying mitigation paths.
Don't miss
Sean’s breakdown of space, link, ground, and user segments shows why space cyber defense requires more than a simple ground-versus-space distinction.
The brief
Space now underpins navigation, communications, and everyday services, making spacecraft and supporting systems attractive targets rather than remote technical curiosities.
Sean McCurdy and Maria Varmanzes frame space as a contested operational technology environment, where jamming and spoofing can disrupt precision navigation and timing.
The architecture has four connected segments—space, link, ground, and user—so defenders must trace risks across spacecraft, communications, mission control, and end users.
The hardest problem may be visibility: software-defined radios, networked satellite functions, legacy formats, and incomplete asset inventories obscure possible compromise paths.
SPARTA and MITRE ATT&CK provide common schemas for classifying attacks and mitigation, while normalized telemetry and preserved operator knowledge make that analysis usable.
