The intelligence community is on the alert for spies looking to penetrate America’s commercial space sector through cyberattacks and strategic investments to gain access to critical networks.
The counterintelligence officials’ advisory said American space companies need to be on the lookout for “unusually high cyberactivity,” requests to visit company facilities, attempts to recruit insiders and investment offers.
The FBI, National Counterintelligence and Security Center, and Air Force Office of Special Investigations did not name the foreign adversaries prompting the August alert, but China and Russia are known to be active threats to the commercial space industry.
“Foreign intelligence entities (FIEs) recognize the importance of the commercial space industry to the U.S. economy and national security, including the growing dependence of critical infrastructure on space-based assets,” the advisory said. “They see U.S. space-related innovation and assets as potential threats as well as valuable opportunities to acquire vital technologies and expertise.”
The Biden administration has said it observed Russia conducting destructive cyberattacks against the commercial space sector. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year said America spotted Russia using cyberattacks against commercial satellite communications to disrupt Ukrainian command and control networks amid Russia’s invasion.
“The activity disabled very small aperture terminals in Ukraine and across Europe,” Mr. Blinken said in a May 2022 statement. “This includes tens of thousands of terminals outside of Ukraine that, among other things, support wind turbines and provide internet services to private citizens.”
Fears have spread that China is building powerful cyberweapons to hijack satellites.
China has worked on a cyberweapon to take out enemy satellites surpassing everything Russia has deployed against Ukraine, according to the Financial Times, citing an American intelligence community document from 2023. The leaked document was among the classified materials allegedly shared online by National Guard Airman Jack Teixeira, who pleaded not guilty to federal felony charges in June.
American space companies are not defenseless against foreign threats. The counterintelligence officials’ new advisory said the commercial space sector should mitigate threats through widespread reviews of their security practices, including by ensuring that companies’ lawyers, information technology workers and human resource offices are collaborating.
Suggested steps to stop foreign spies included “develop an ‘anomaly’ log to track peculiar incidents to potentially spot malicious trends against your organization” and “establish an insider threat program within your organization.”
The cyber and espionage threat to the commercial space sector is unlikely to shrink soon. The counterintelligence officials’ alert said the size of the global space economy was an estimated $469 billion in 2021 and is projected to hit $1 trillion by 2030, with the U.S. being the main driver of growth in the industry.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
Source:Washington Times
