The Legality of Space Cyber Security: “When Could Space Cyber Security Tend Towards Infringing Legality?”

The Space Domain is increasingly being exploited and there is no sign of this slowing. The fact that for you, your children or grandchildren, it is likely that there have been human beings in orbit above the Earth for you or their entire life is testimony to how we have tapped the resource that is near space. Just as in the terrestrial domain, cyber security is a vital consideration. The threat of cyber attack is very real and just as damaging. To enact an attack, in simple terms, first the target must be discovered; secondly its boundary must be breached; privilege attained; possible lateral movement; and an attack executed. Each stage requires protection, although potentially by protecting the previous stage. Numerous effects support making services cyber secure by the employment of various Cyber Resiliency Implementation Approaches and the subsequent security controls that are used to implement them. Where could the methods used to achieve the objectives of these cyber resiliency approaches and the subsequent effect breach the various national and international legal requirements across the world? Example: Although the above example may have legitimacy in a time of conflict between nations, during peacetime, this could likely be viewed as an illegal act. This chapter explores the possibility of cyber effects infringing law by looking at examples of where achieving cyber secure space services may potentially cause such an infringement, how this may be policed or enforced, or not, with the author’s conclusion.