NETWORK SECURITY AND INFORMATION ASSURANCE FOR SPACE MISSIONS

Overview

Civilian space missions too often depend upon access and obscurity to maintain the 
integrity of their space links. As the desire for inter-agency and international space 
mission operations increases, space systems become increasingly exposed to a variety 
of network vulnerabilities. Since RF links to the spacecraft are vulnerable to attacks, 
security measures appropriate for low-powered flight processors are necessary. We 
propose a discussion on the scalable, efficient security schemes and processes necessary to ensure the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of ground and space assets in a multi-agency networking model.

Approach

As many of these topics are still nascent, we are eschewing the traditional presentation-centric workshop in favor of open discussions to answer both pre-defined questions as well as questions that are revealed during the interactive talks.  Each session begins with a facilitator introducing a specific topic via a 10-15 minute overview. The introduction is followed by an “open mic” where attendees are welcome to present five minute lightning talks on the given topic. The session concludes with a panel discussion moderated by the workshop organizers to answer or define topic questions. To achieve thoughtful results, we ask SMC-IT attendees to join us in drafting novel solutions to security issues facing space mission challenges.

Results

As the information from these discussions will be valuable to the larger space community, we are publishing the results on the workshop’s website (http://www.securespacecraft.org).  We will also recognize the participants in each session per attendee approval.

Agenda

Morning Session - DTN Security

10:30-11:00AM ION+BSP Security Implementation Demo

11:00-12:00PM Discussion on cryptographic primitives and key management for spaceflight missions

Break for Lunch

Afternoon Session - System Security

1:00-2:00 Space System Security - Threats and security models.

2:00-2:30 Break

2:30-3:00 Ground System Security - Requirements and purpose in an inter-agency deployment.

3:00-3:30 Break

3:30-4:30 Spacecraft Constellations - Challenges for network security

4:30-5:00 Closing remarks/Time for further discussions

Organization:

Session Chair(s): William Van Besien, Edward Birrane, Christopher Krupiarz, John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, USA William.Van.Besien@jhuapl.edu