Senators return to effort to boost cybersecurity for commercial satellite industry

A bipartisan pair of U.S. senators on Wednesday reintroduced legislation meant to help commercial satellite providers defend their networks against digital threats.

The bill, dubbed the Satellite Cybersecurity Act, is sponsored by Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and would require the Commerce Department to create voluntary cybersecurity guidelines for industry.

The measure would task the National Cyber Director, the National Space Council and the chair of the Federal Communications Commission to work with other government agencies to develop a strategy to boost coordination on federal digital security for space systems.

It would also direct the Government Accountability Office to conduct a review of existing federal efforts to support the commercial satellite sector.

“Foreign adversaries and cybercriminals continue to target cybersecurity vulnerabilities in commercial satellites, and these attacks have the potential to significantly disrupt American lives and livelihoods,” Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.

Cornyn said the bill would “equip satellite owners and operators with the tools to secure their systems against disruption.”

Today’s introduction marks the third attempt by Peters to move the bill. It previously won approval in the Homeland Security panel twice. Both times it failed to receive a vote on the Senate floor.

The issue of satellite digital security has cropped up intermittently in recent years. The U.S. industry includes longtime players such as Boeing and more recent entries like Elon Musk’s Starlink.

In 2022, the U.S. and Western allies blamed Russia for a digital assault on Viasat’s KA-SAT satellite that disabled the modems of tens of thousands of European customers and threatened Ukraine as it prepared to defend itself against Moscow’s forces. This year, NATO’s annual Cyber Coalition exercise for the first time featured a space-based scenario, a reminder of the attack.

In 2023, the Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0 published a report on space sector cybersecurity that recommended it be designated the nation’s 17th critical infrastructure sector. 

The bipartisan bill specifically states that it does not “designate commercial satellite systems or other space assets as a critical infrastructure sector.”

Peters, who won’t seek reelection next year and will retire from the Senate when his second term ends in January 2027, said the bill would “enable companies and other satellite owners and operators to safeguard their systems against cybersecurity threats.”