Gregory Falco

Undersea communication cables (UCCs) are critical for global connectivity but remain vulnerable to physical and cyber threats. This paper presents insights from the NATO Science for Peace and Security Project: Hybrid Space and Submarine Architecture to Ensure Information Security of Telecommunications (HEIST) , a system designed to enhance the redundancy and resilience of UCCs. The proposed architecture aims to efficiently reroute data from submarine cables to satellite networks upon detection of threats via enhanced subsea sensing and monitoring. We discuss the components, including secure communication links, real-time situational awareness, and smart contracting for automated routing of compromised UCC communications. We demonstrate the operational capabilities of HEIST in mitigating disruptions through a simulation environment. The architecture indicates improved robustness to accidental or malicious attacks against submarine cables, reinforcing the strategic importance of hybrid multi-domain networks for resilient telecommunications. As such, the HEIST provides a blueprint for a future robust and resilient backbone for the internet.

In the face of adverse environmental conditions and cyber threats, robust communication systems for critical applications such as wildfire management and detection demand secure and resilient architectures. This paper presents a novel framework that considers both adversarial factors, building resilience into a heterogeneous network (HetNet) integrating Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation with High-Altitude Platform Ground Stations (HAPGS) and Low-Altitude Platforms (LAPS), tailored to support wildfire management operations. Building upon our previous work on secure-by-component approach for link segment security, we extend protection to the communication layer by securing both Radio Frequency (RF)/Free Space Optics (FSO) management and different links. Through a case study, we quantify how environmental stressors impact secrecy capacity and expose the system to passive adversaries. Key findings demonstrate that atmospheric attenuation and beam misalignment can notably degrade secrecy capacity across both short-and long-range communication links, while high-altitude eavesdroppers face less signal degradation, increasing their interception capability. Moreover, increasing transmit power to counter environmental losses can inadvertently improve eavesdropper reception, thereby reducing overall link confidentiality. Our work not only highlights the importance of protecting networks from these dual threats but also aligns with the IEEE P3536 Standard for Space System Cybersecurity Design, ensuring resilience and the prevention of mission failures.

Modern space vehicles capture a wealth of sensor data that is in high-demand by a wide range of commercial and nation-state beneficiaries. This data can be used to monitor our planet, monitor space traffic and manage collision avoidance, among other use cases. While there is ongoing investment into cross-linking satellite constellations and building an ‘on-orbit internet’, it remains unclear how the integral requesting and delivery of this data will be facilitated. We propose a distributed marketplace for space domain awareness that engages smart contracts and a distributed ledger to manage the engagement of satellites across an untrusted ecosystem. This marketplace was implemented on a custom simulation environment that was able to orchestrate and monitor its behavior under a series of representative scenarios. The marketplace software payload was designed to conform to the power and compute constraints of a modern space vehicle while implementing secure smart contracting and format-preserving validation techniques.

Exponential growth of the space industry avails unprecedented opportunities to establish a marketplace of satellite infrastructure services. However, security and resource constraints pose critical challenges to implementing the exchange of services such as storage, compute or even arm-based manipulation. We propose a fully distributed architecture that will facilitate resilient, trustless interactions to enable space infrastructure as a service and applications such as in-space servicing. The distributed architecture engages Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) such as blockchains and directed acyclic graphs to designate and enforce security policy via smart contracts between multiple parties across payloads owned or operated by different service providers on the same satellite bus or across a constellation. This work presents a zero-trust space infrastructure as a service architecture and examines how the architecture addresses critical challenges such as consensus and cyber resilience to facilitate a space services marketplace.

The New Space era exacerbates the precarious cybersecurity conditions of space systems. An intrusion detection strategy that leverages a spacecraft’s physics emerges as a defense against evolving cyberthreats, aiming to secure space assets with an innovative, resource-constrained approach.

Imagine “astronauts working in a lunar habitat with Internet of Things devices.” In response to such a simple prompt, within seconds a generative AI rendered the image above, which enamored this issue's guest editors with its fanciful, seemingly humorous depiction of what appears to be a pair of space-suited engineers engaged in something like a hackathon while sitting in the lunar dust with coffee cups nearby. Beyond being a fun way to kick off this Special Issue on Pervasive Computing in Space, this image underscores how quickly world-changing technology is now being unleashed. Just within the last year or so, AI has moved beyond mastering niche applications and into popular use with increasingly sophisticated chatbots and image-generating environments that win art contests alongside humans. Regardless of the intensifying discussion this sparks about machine creativity and intelligence, AI has now become a quickly moving landscape. We do not know how far this ride will go and where the next roadblocks, always close-at-hand in previous years, will manifest.

Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is substantially affecting the human condition in ways that are not yet well understood. Negative unintended consequences abound including the perpetuation and exacerbation of societal inequalities and divisions via algorithmic decision making. We present six grand challenges for the scientific community to create AI technologies that are human-centered, that is, ethical, fair, and enhance the human condition. These grand challenges are the result of an international collaboration across academia, industry and government and represent the consensus views of a group of 26 experts in the field of human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI). In essence, these challenges advocate for a human-centered approach to AI that (1) is centered in human well-being, (2) is designed responsibly, (3) respects privacy, (4) follows human-centered design principles, (5) is subject to appropriate governance and oversight, and (6) interacts with individuals while respecting human’s cognitive capacities. We hope that these challenges and their associated research directions serve as a call for action to conduct research and development in AI that serves as a force multiplier towards more fair, equitable and sustainable societies.