In her article published on INCYDER research tool, CCDCOE Law Researcher Liina Lumiste looks into the most acute vulnerabilities of the space-based structures as outlined in the recent Chatham House research paper ‘Cybersecurity of NATO’s Space-based Strategic Assets‘. Although modern military operations rely largely on space-based assets like satellite communications infrastructure, NATO has not yet declared space as a domain.
Along with bringing out various space-based structures as possible targets for cyber attacks. the article provides an overview of NATO’s course of action in developing space policy and possibly claiming space as a domain of operations. “Defining space as a separate domain brings about several legal questions such as what is the threshold of collective self-defence in case of cyber attack against space-assets and whether cyber-attacks with kinetic results would violate international humanitarian law restriction on causing widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment,” says Lumiste.
INCYDER, an initiative of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, is an interactive research tool focusing on the legal and policy documents adopted by international organisations active in cyber security. The collection of documents is periodically updated and supported by a comprehensive system of tags that enable filtering the content by specific sub-domains.
The articles published at INCYDER do not necessarily reflect the policy or the opinion of the NATO CCDCOE or NATO. The Centre may not be held responsible for any loss or harm arising from the use of information contained in this publication and is not responsible for the content of the external sources, including external websites referenced in this publication.