SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Italian space logistics company D-Orbit announced the conclusion Nov. 6 of CTRL+Space, Europe\u2019s first in-orbit Capture-the-Flag (CTF) cybersecurity competition and the first live CTF contest involving multiple satellites.<\/p>\n
Italian CFT team mhackeroni worked with D-Orbit to organize the CTRL+Space competition. The European Space Agency Security Cyber Centre of Excellence and the ESA Security Office supported the event, which was held at the Security for Space Systems Conference.<\/p>\n
During the competition\u2019s Nov. 4-6 finale, held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands, five teams of hackers competed to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems in D-Orbit\u2019s ION Satellite Carrier. Teams captured digital \u201cflags\u201d when they succeeded in breaching security systems.<\/p>\n
D-Orbit\u2019s ION Satellite Carrier employs \u201crobust security measures\u201d to ensure \u201call scenarios were executed in a secure, fully controlled environment, completely isolated from the satellite\u2019s commercial mission,\u201d according to the news release.<\/p>\n
The CTRL+Space event attracted 559 teams with 299 completing at least one cybersecurity challenge. ENOFLAG, Superflat, RedRocket, CzechCyberTeam and PoliTech competed in the finals, with Superflat named the winner.<\/p>\n
Satellite Vulnerabilities<\/p>\n
\u201cThe space environment poses unique issues to the development of engaging challenges,\u201d mhackeroni\u2019s Daniele Lain, a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich, said in a statement. \u201cThis one-of-a-kind event helps us understand how more conventional vulnerabilities and exploits can translate to satellite environments and their limitations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonios Atlasis, System Security Section chief at ESA\u2019s Technology, Engineering and Quality Directorate, said in a statement that the Capture-the-Flag challenge provided European students with a unique opportunity to confront satellite cybersecurity challenges and \u201calso proved that the implementation of cybersecurity protection measures in satellites is possible, even for the most challenging security scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCybersecurity has become a fundamental pillar of the new space economy,\u201d Grazia Bibiano, D-Orbit\u2019s Portugal leader, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Since cybersecurity is a serious threat to space missions, companies and government agencies work with \u201cethical\u201d hackers to identify vulnerabilities. In 2023, the U.S. Air Force invited teams attending the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas to hack into a cubesat<\/a> in low-Earth orbit.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Italian space logistics company D-Orbit announced the conclusion Nov. 6 of CTRL+Space, Europe\u2019s first in-orbit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[982,95788,18,28434,19,17,3977,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-166449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-cybersecurity","9":"tag-d-orbit","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-european-space-agency","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-sn","15":"tag-technology"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115504058723393074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}