The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) recapped its recently hosted, third annual New Mexico Cyber and Space Summit in Albuquerque. Attendees included military and professionals from the Department of Defense, private and commercial industries, the intelligence community and academia. The summit aimed to initiate the expansion of space cyber topics in New Mexico, anticipating technology growth in the coming decades.
“New Mexico is strategically set up to meet the growing technology needs of space, cyber and space cyber,” said Joseph “Dan” Trujillo, the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate’s space cyber resiliency lead and technical lead for the summit. “It is a huge money growth opportunity that the state needs to invest in the coming years.”
This year’s summit was opened up to the public with the goal of informing local state government officials and a general audience of the threats and problems to be solved for space cyber, Trujillo said.
“Labs across the state are working to solve and secure our space assets from cyber-attack and we want to engage with the public and get them on board to help or partner with us to solve those problems,” Trujillo added.
Day one of the summit featured an unclassified forum for local experts, followed by a classified internal forum on day two. Brian Engberg, Space Control Technology branch chief, commended the increased awareness and collaboration among government, academia and industry in addressing critical space systems’ cyber threats.
“I am very proud of the AFRL team for organizing and executing this year’s Space Cyber Summit,” Engberg said. “For the first time, the workshop included participation from state and local government and had a more technical focus on the challenging issues we face in protecting critical space systems from cyber threats.”
This increased awareness and collaboration between government, academia and industry serves to build relationships, focus expertise and identify effective solutions, Engberg added.
“AFRL has identified significant and growing cyber threats to space systems,” said Philip Blong, AFRL Deputy Control mission lead. “This pivotal annual summit advances space cyber expertise and technologies and fosters community-wide collaboration to meet and defeat these threats.”
Over the three-day summit, leading experts in cybersecurity and space engaged in panel discussions on space capabilities and cutting-edge cyber. State officials also participated in a panel to address space cyber challenges, covering topics such as threats, protection and services/response, and exploring ways the state can contribute to the growth of space cyber.
Source: AFRL
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