Security in data-driven satellite applications: An overview and new perspectives

Abstract

The worldwide deployment of satellite constellations has received considerable attention in recent years. In this overview paper, we intensively study the security issues in typical data-driven on-orbit applications. First, we identify the security threats in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and review a series of anomaly detection and auto-correlation-based methods to resist typical attacks. Second, we show the security issues in satellite communications, which suffer from the dynamic topology and frequent change of access points; meanwhile, we propose a secure mobility management framework concerning handover and location management. Third, we discuss the satellite remote sensing application’s secure on-orbit data processing paradigm. This paradigm achieves secure coordination between multiple tasks with heterogeneous on-orbit resources and secure on-orbit joint computation. As the study of securing satellite applications, especially in securing on-orbit data computation, is limited, our overview paper provides an early overview of this area. It also shows future security research trends in typical applications.