Space services play a critical role in government missions and defence operations, supporting tasks such as communication, navigation and reconnaissance. Their strategic importance, however, has made them targets for a growing range of threats, including cyberattacks on ground stations, signal jamming and spoofing, manipulation of satellite imagery and direct kinetic attacks on orbital assets. This e-Note elaborates on the various kinds of methods that our adversaries have at their disposal for space service denial and what these may mean for us. To mitigate these risks, it is essential for users to regularly verify the integrity of satellite services and data, particularly when relying on open-source imagery, and to use military-coded GPS where available to reduce vulnerability to interference. Training programmes should incorporate scenarios simulating complete denial of space services, while system analyses should identify critical dependencies, with checklists and backups established as needed. Continuous engagement between government and defence users on the one hand and space service providers on the other is recommended to ensure both ground and space segments remain resilient against cyber threats. Because, ultimately, the reliability of space services depends on the security of their most vulnerable component.
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e-Note 88
Silence From Space: To What Extent Can We Still Rely on Satellite Services?