NCCoE releases final NIST IR 8441 HSN Profile document for enhanced space cybersecurity
The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE), a part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), published Monday the final NIST IR 8441, cybersecurity framework (CSF) profile for hybrid satellite networks (HSN). The HSN CSF Profile (HSN Profile) serves as a guiding resource for space stakeholders and is ideal for applications that entail multiple stakeholders participating in activities related to imagery, sensing, broadcasting, communication, or other space-based architectures.
With the HSN Profile, organizations can identify systems, assets, data, and risks that pertain to HSN; protect HSN services by performing self-assessments and adhering to cybersecurity principles; detect cybersecurity-related disturbances or corruption of HSN services and data; respond to HSN service or data anomalies in a timely, effective, and resilient manner; recover the HSN to proper working order after a cybersecurity incident.
The profile provides a practical tool for organizations engaged in the design, acquisition, and operation of satellite buses or payloads involving HSN. Its primary intent is to help those organizations better understand the attack surface, incorporate security, and achieve greater resilience for space systems that may be leveraged by critical infrastructure owners and operators, the Department of Defense, or other government missions, in a manner that is consistent with the organization’s risk tolerance.
The components within an HSN are likely to have varying levels of trust among different components, requiring frameworks for establishing confidentiality and integrity of individual components while still enabling the availability of required shared services. The flexibility of HSNs enables rapid integration of new capabilities and technologies. A properly architected HSN can do so in a secure, scalable, responsive, cyber-resilient, and information-centric manner.
The HSN Profile document comes as the space sector is transitioning away from traditional, vertically integrated entities and towards an aggregation of independently owned and operated segments, it is becoming more critical for all stakeholders to share a common understanding of the risks and how they can be mitigated. The document is intended for those involved in HSN cybersecurity management, including procurement officials, HSN service providers, risk managers, cybersecurity professionals, mission/business process owners, researchers, analysts, and cybersecurity architects.
The scope of the HSN profile focuses on physical and virtual interfaces such as antenna fields; virtual Machine-based command formatter; software-defined elements hosted on a cloud; bus; payloads; user terminals; intermediate ground nodes; intersatellite cross links for purposes such as linking to a payload hosted on another satellite, higher resolution, greater communication bandwidth, path redundancy, etc.
The HSN profile is intended to facilitate the integration of HSN components through thorough consideration of cybersecurity functions, categories, and subcategories. It consistently assesses and communicates the cybersecurity posture; provides a comprehensive framework to facilitate risk management decisions; and facilitates consistent assessments of cyber risk.
The HSN profile focuses on a subset of CSF subcategories that is directly applicable to the HSN and strategies that should be considered. The HSN profile allows each organization the flexibility to implement selected mitigation strategies based on their risk tolerance or accepted risk management strategy. The HSN profile focuses on the complex variety of interfaces, data flows, and interactions with third-party services or component providers involved in modern HSNs.
Many of these systems require connections to external partners or entities that are not trusted. Interfacing with untrusted systems requires the individual systems to understand and bind the inherited risk and assure their confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The HSN profile addresses concerns unique to HSN, and the reader is referred to other CSF profiles (such as NISTIR 8401, NISTIR 8323, and others) to address concerns about space system segments or components that are beyond this profile’s scope.
Decision makers are tasked with determining acceptable risk, and this CSF profile is a tool to help inform decision-makers concerning potential risks. This CSF profile provides an HSN-specific framework that facilitates assessments of the cybersecurity posture of the HSN and can be used as part of a larger security in-depth assessment for the space system. The CSF profile is intended to augment, not replace, the organization’s risk management procedures. NIST recognizes that the HSN profile will be applied to specific organizations with specific needs.
The document also offers an overview of risk management and the NIST CSF. A profile is designed to offer insights into risk management while applying the NIST CSF to address particular security considerations. The HSN profile will reference existing standards, guidelines, and best practices for added context.
Based on the NIST CSF profile, the HSN document provides summaries of Subcategories within a Category for a Function. The Informative References offer additional guidance to assist risk management practitioners in applying this profile. When reviewing these tables, the term ‘organization’ refers to the HSN entity assessing its cybersecurity posture. Other HSN elements are denoted as partners, stakeholders, service providers, or external organizations.
The CSF is intentionally adaptable to accommodate various organizational environments and requirements. Users should be aware that differences between their enterprise and the assumptions in the profile may affect subcategory applicability. Thus, organizations should assess all subcategories, even those deemed not applicable, within their specific context.
In June, the NIST published a draft of its cybersecurity framework profile for HSNs. The draft document worked towards helping organizations engaged in the design, acquisition, and operation of satellite buses or payloads involving hybrid satellite networks.
Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) along with the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) and the Office of Special Investigations of the U.S. Justice Department called for safeguarding the nation’s space industry and ‘keeping intellectual property in orbit.’ The warning comes as space is fundamental to every aspect of society, including emergency services, energy, financial services, telecommunications, transportation, and food and agriculture – all relying on space services to operate.
A complimentary guide to the who`s who in industrial cybersecurity tech & solutions
Free DownloadRelated
