CYSAT’21: Massimo Mercati from the European Space Agency (ESA)
Massimo, as Head of the ESA Security Office, is responsible for the coordination, supervision and control of all security matters in ESA. He is the ESA Cyber Security Authority and the lead of ESA’s Cyber Resilience Programme.
“Securing ESA’s ground segment and operations”
The criticality and strategic added value space brings to our economies, autonomy and security are now universally recognised. With this comes increased dependence on these tools, progressively more threatened by a growing number of potential attackers benefiting from more-easily available technologies. This strategic context warrants appropriate protection of space systems. ESA, as Europe’s main provider of public investments in space, is at the heart of this challenge, its aim being to protect the availability, integrity and confidentiality of the data space systems create, transmit and store.
The ESA framework has adapted accordingly: In July 2020, Member States updates ESA’s legal security framework, mitigating risks via a comprehensive security risk management process for all space programmes, via effective security engineering, and via integrated security certification and accreditation processes.
These structural advances are reinforced by the STARGATE infrastructure, currently being developed, composed of state-of-the-art cyber capabilities through a Cyber Security Operations Centre and Space Cyber Centre of Excellence, which will allow ESA, its Member States and partners to perform inter alia day to day monitoring and management of the cyber security threats, staff training, Cyber Threat Intelligence, test and qualification functions for both space and ground segments, down to the user segment.
