As space missions and technologies grow increasingly interconnected, NASA has released the first iteration of its Space Security Best Practices Guide to bolster mission cybersecurity efforts for both public sector and private sector space activities.
The guide represents a significant milestone in NASA’s commitment to ensuring the longevity and resilience of its space missions and will serve as a resource for enhancing their security and reliability.
Additionally, the Space Security Best Practices Guide was designed to benefit users beyond NASA – international partners, industry, and others working in the expanding fields of space exploration and development. The guide is designed to provide security guidance for missions, programs, or projects of any size.
“At NASA, we recognize the importance of protecting our space missions from potential threats and vulnerabilities” said Misty Finical, deputy principal advisor for Enterprise Protection at NASA. “This guide represents a collective effort to establish a set of principles that will enable us to identify and mitigate risks and ensure continued success of our missions, both in Earth’s orbit and beyond.”
In terms of both information systems and operational technologies, space systems are becoming more integrated and interconnected. These developments carry benefits – NASA and other organizations have unprecedented new possibilities for working, communicating, and gathering data in space. But new, complex systems can also have vulnerabilities. Through its new guide, NASA aims to provide best practices for adapting to these new challenges and implementing safety and security measures.
The guide reflects NASAs continued commitment to helping develop clear cybersecurity principles for its space systems, encapsulated in its Space System Protection Standard. The agency developed the handbook to further support the goals of Space Policy Directive 5, Cybersecurity Principles for Space Systems.
NASA will collect feedback from the space community to integrate into future versions of the guide.