On the first day of National Space Month, the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) announced the opening of general membership applications to join the Space ISAC — potential new members are encouraged to visit s-isac.org/membership to begin the application process.
The Space ISAC serves to facilitate collaboration across the global space industry to enhance our ability to prepare for and respond to vulnerabilities, incidents, and threats; to disseminate timely and actionable information among member entities; and to serve as the primary communications channel for the space sector with respect to this information. This will be made possible through collaboration of a broad membership that spans the entire horizon of the space industry, including organizations large and small involved in the space supply chain, space missions, education and research, space business systems, cybersecurity, and more.
Organizations eligible for membership are those involved in space situational awareness; space intelligence, surveillance, and recon; space environment; NUDET detection; space mission systems; satellite design and development; satellite and payload integration; positioning, navigation, and timing; satellite communications; missile warning; space lift; cloud and data processing; launch vehicle manufacturing; ground systems; and/or cybersecurity. Potential members will be vetted to ensure organizational integrity and protect the Space ISAC’s trusted sharing environment.
Once through the application and vetting process, Space ISAC members will have:
- ACCESS: to a global network of space sector leaders, analysts, executives and practitioners from the private and public sectors to share critical information and best practices.
- INTELLIGENCE: by the end of Summer 2020, Space ISAC will launch its threat-sharing and analysis portal to enable in a high-trust, peer sharing environment shares among its members and trusted sources critical cyber-intelligence, alerts, indicators, member insights, threat assessments, and analysis.
- COLLABORATION: facilitation of collaboration across the global space industry to enhance preparedness and response to vulnerabilities, incidents, and threats and to disseminate timely and actionable information among member entities.
- ASSISTANCE: offers members multiple efforts to learn and strengthen space mission performance despite the potential ongoing occurrence of cyber and physical attacks.
- RESOURCES: workshops, an annual summit, meetings, webinars and working groups and open lines of communication with the global space community.
Together, Space ISAC members will lead the global space community to identify and respond to threats and mitigating risks to the space mission and regularly convene to protect the space sector and reduce operational costs by sharing threat intel, analyzing trends, conducting workshops and gaining firsthand knowledge through training.
The Space ISAC is the only space-dedicated ISAC and is made possible through the investment by its board and founding members. Its board, which held its third meeting in March, is comprised of leaders in the space industry, cybersecurity sectors, academia, and FFRDCs, and includes Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS), Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH), MITRE, SES, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN), Purdue University, the Space Dynamics Laboratory, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Aerospace Corporation, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Each board member has a role in fulfilling the mission of the ISAC.
David Weissmiller, Chair of the Space ISAC Member and Benefits Committee and Director of Parsons Space Solutions, said the Space ISAC is excited to announce the grand opening of membership for the international space industry. This is an unprecedented opportunity to share lessons learned, receive threat analysis feedback from government stake holders and represent a company as a space industry leader. He noted, "If you are in the space community, you should be a part of the Space ISAC. This includes space launch, satellite command and control, space support, cyber security and all other space market sectors. Come visit our website and let our staff answer your questions. I look forward to talking with you in the future.”
Erin Miller, VP of Operations for Space ISAC at the National Cybersecurity Center, added that the organization is opening access for the entire global space community to share threats with one another to mitigate risks to missions, including future launches, cloud computing systems, satellite communications, supply chain and business systems. The risks facing the space industry's growth are numerous, so sharing best practices and benchmarking will revolutionize the ability to travel to the moon, to Mars, communicate using 5G & 6G networks and maintain geolocation services.
