Via Satellite
• Shaun Waterman
The National Reconnaissance Office’s Cyber Protection Office has more than 600 staff and an annual budget of $250 million, Lt. Col. Luke Shibilski told CyberSat attendees. The disclosure comes as the White House warns of attacks accelerated by artificial intelligence, underscoring the security demands facing satellite operators.
Cybersecurity (Cyber Threats & Protection)
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The National Reconnaissance Office’s Cyber Protection Office has more than 600 staff and an annual budget of $250 million, Lt. Col. Luke Shibilski told CyberSat attendees. The disclosure comes as the White House warns of attacks accelerated by artificial intelligence, underscoring the security demands facing satellite operators.
Space industry CISOs discussed a service disruption that cut Ukrainian forces off from Starlink and its military variant, Starshield, during combat operations with Russia. Speaking at CyberSat, they called for clearer service terms and greater sovereign control over critical satellite connectivity.
United Airlines is deploying defensive artificial intelligence and strengthening cybersecurity operations as it expands in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity across its fleet, CISO Deneen DeFiore said. The rollout is expected to reach the entire fleet by the end of 2027; the report does not specify the AI systems or cybersecurity measures involved.
The U.S. Space Force sees space not only as a physical environment governed by orbital mechanics, but also as a digital domain, according to its deputy chief strategy officer for cyber and data. The framing underscores the importance of cyber capabilities in how the service understands and operates in space.
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Unauthorized access to an Amadeus system used to display travel bookings affected about 53,000 Cathay Pacific bookings, the airline said. Malaysia Airlines separately said customer information may have been exposed in an incident involving the same reservation-technology provider, with potentially affected data processed between August 2023 and September 2026.
At SDSC 2026, ETH Zurich researcher Clémence Poirier discusses tracking cyber attacks against space systems and assessing the sector’s threat landscape. Her central argument is that improving security depends less on creating additional frameworks than on implementing existing protections more effectively.
Spaceit COO Mari Allik describes an ESA Space Cyber Range for exercising cyber threats before launch, alongside a 16U CubeSat that lets outside users run their code in orbit. The initiatives offer complementary ways to test space systems: simulated threat scenarios on the ground and validation through an operational spacecraft.
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