Professor Jill Slay, the SmartSat Professorial Chair of Cyber Security, recently played a key role in hosting a five-day seminar focused on protecting the space industry from cyber threats.
The seminar, titled Guardians of the Galaxy: Protecting Space Systems from Cyber Threats, was organised by SmartSat, Cornell University, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the CISPA Helmholtz Centre for Information Security, with additional support from NASA, the Aerospace Corporation, and various international universities.
Held earlier this month, the seminar aimed to address the urgent issue of cybersecurity within the space sector. As the number of cyber-attacks grows, the seminar focused on ways to secure space infrastructure.
Three main areas of focus were explored during the event:
- Intrusion detection and defense in space, while ensuring mission resilience for operators
- Secure communication protocols that can withstand attacks and noise
- Reliable and integral ground station operations
The seminar brought together academic researchers, industry professionals, and decision-makers, all working together to develop new theories, technologies, and systems to address security challenges in the space ecosystem.
One key topic of discussion was the lack of standardised satellite architectures, datasets, and equipment (such as test beds, honey pots, or flat sats) across countries, which currently limits international collaboration.
The organisers hope to make the seminar an annual event, rotating between different participating countries. This would foster collaboration on projects aimed at creating universal datasets and test beds for space cybersecurity.
The inaugural Dagstuhl Seminar was funded by Schloss Dagstuhl, the Leibniz Centre for Informatics in Germany, a renowned international research center dedicated to advancing computer science.
Professor Jill Slay is currently the University of South Australia SmartSat Professorial Chair of Cybersecurity. Her current work focuses on the context of satellite cybersecurity and resilience. Professor Slay has published more than 140 outputs in information assurance, critical infrastructure protection, security and forensic computing and has established an international research reputation in cyber security (particularly Digital Forensics, Cyber Intelligence and Cyberwarfare).