The White House and Capitol Hill are stepping up efforts to deal with threats to space infrastructure. Cyber adversaries could infiltrate satellite systems with malicious software, thereby gaining control, incapacitating functionality, or severing communication channels. Furthermore, hackers may induce satellite malfunction, leading to catastrophic outcomes.
A significant cyberattack on satellites could potentially target everything from GPS to texting to weather forecasts, with hackers requiring minimal resources and expertise to execute such disruptive actions. This cyber threat transcends the concerns surrounding the deployment of nuclear weapons in space, for which there are established global prohibitions.
