Israeli Cyber Official Warns of Surge in Satellite Cyber Attacks
A senior Israel National Cyber Directorate official told the Cyber Week Conference in Tel Aviv that hacks targeting space assets have jumped in recent years, with the potential damage growing sharply.
By Olga Menon ·
Cyber attacks targeting space-related assets have risen sharply in recent years, and the damage they are capable of causing has grown substantially, a senior Israeli cyber defense official said on Monday.
Kobi Menashe, Director of Guidance and Spectrum Defense at the Israel National Cyber Directorate, made the remarks at the Cyber Week Conference at Tel Aviv University. He described an "invisible" cyber war unfolding in space, largely hidden from the public eye, and said people often remain unaware even after the fact that a disruption they experienced originated in a space-based hack.
Menashe pointed to Russia's 2022 hack of Viasat, the American communications company's satellite internet system, as a landmark case. That attack ultimately disrupted Ukraine's communications network nationwide and also affected other European countries, including Germany.
Since then, such attacks have only multiplied, he said, even as the number of satellites in orbit continues to climb. The growing volume of space machinery has coincided with a lower standard of cyber defense, meaning there are more targets available and breaching them is easier than it once was.
He also highlighted a structural shift in how satellite networks operate. Rather than linking to a single ground station on Earth, as was common in the past, modern satellites typically communicate with a wide range of other satellites and space nodes. As a result, compromising even one satellite in a network can open the door to hacking many more, allowing damage to spread quickly.
Space hacks can take a variety of forms, Menashe said. These include eavesdropping, spooling, in which data is temporarily held in a storage area, and replaying, where data is run and stalled in a loop. Attackers can also resort to jamming, location spoofing, or protocol exploitation, which involves abusing space link communications with problematic commands.
The risks are compounded by the growing autonomy of space operations, he added. Some systems now run with less real-time human validation for stretches of up to 48 hours, giving attackers longer windows in which a breach can proceed without anyone becoming aware of it.
The consequences of such attacks can extend far beyond national communications, Menashe warned. Cars, aircraft, sea vessels, and a wide range of other operations can all be affected. He noted that 1,100 maritime vessels lost maneuvering ability during the early 2026 Iran war.
