Project
What is our project ?
7SHIELD – Safety and Security Standards of Space Systems, ground Segments and Satellite data assets, via prevention, detection, response and mitigation of physical and cyber threats is funded by the European Commission (EC) through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, in response to the call ‘H2020-SU-INFRA-2019 – Prevention, detection, response and mitigation of combined physical and cyber threats to critical infrastructure in Europe’.
Through an innovative approach and thanks to a Consortium of world-leading technical partners, critical infrastructure operators and representatives of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), 7SHIELD’s ambition is to provide a holistic framework against Cyber/Physical threats for European Space Ground Segments resilience.
The Cyber/Physical threats
In the European new security landscape, ground segments increasingly appear as potential “new targets” for “new threats”, especially the hybrid ones (e.g. cyber-physical). A physical/cyber-attack to their installations or communication networks, respectively, would cause debilitating impact on public safety and security of European citizens and affect also other European critical infrastructure. On the one hand, a physical attack on a space ground segment makes the distribution of satellite data problematic and, on the other hand, a cyber-attack in its data storage, access and exchange affects not only the reliability of space data, but also their FAIR standards: findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability.
Current approaches do not fully exploit the recent advances in surveillance mechanisms with robotic technologies and AI. Moreover, the centralised storage of large streams of space data may result to vulnerable system design, when authentication and single sign on (SSO) is not ensured.
7SHIELD challenge
7SHIELD aims at providing a holistic framework enable to confront complex threats by covering all the macrostages of crisis management, namely pre-crisis, crisis and post-crises phases.
Specifically, the early warning mechanism estimates the level of risk before the occurrence of a cyber or physical attack. During an attack, the detection and response is effective and efficient, taking into account budgetary constraints. A mitigation plan is designed and automatically updated to offer a quick recovery after an intentional attack or a system failure. Security and resilience of private installations of space ground segments are also supported by business continuity scenarios, building on top of an innovative orchestration of novel monitoring and forecasting technologies.