Space Cyber Risk Management: Desired Properties

Space cyber risk management is an important problem that space practitioners need help with through principled solutions. In the first part of this study [1], we analyze The Aerospace Corporation’s Notional Risk Scores (NRS) approach which is part of its Space Attack Research and Tactic Analysis (SPARTA) framework and represents the state of the art in space cyber risk management. However, NRS is just a starting point toward a systematic solution. In this paper we make a significant step by proposing a set of properties that should be satisfied by competent space cyber risk management tools. These properties should guide the development of such tools. We apply these properties to assess NRS and the Counterspace Threat Assessment Process that has been proposed in the literature. We also illustrate challenges designers of competent space cyber risk management tools will encounter when fulfilling these desired properties, namely zero-day vulnerabilities and interdependence.