When it comes to the philosophy of space technology, the effects of it on earth shouldn’t be undercounted. Cheap satellites have a lot of implications for privacy when every spot on earth can be surveilled 24⁄7.
Orbital bombardment is a powerful weapon with a strength comparable to nuclear weapons and in cases like attacking underground bunkers even more powerful. At the same time, the existing fears of radiation don’t exist for orbital bombardment. It’s important to think well about how to handle the implications of powerful technology in orbit.
SpaceX tanker ships might be powerful enough to do serious damage and yet they don’t have the safety against cyber attacks that military weapons usually had in the past. What happens if a SpaceX tanker crashes in the White House, removing it completely from the map and nobody really knows why it happened?
Generally, the cyber-security of most systems is subpar. The military goes to extraordinary lengths to make its systems secure.
Elon Musk’s philosophy of building things includes pushing engineers to work as fast as possible to make progress. That’s helpful for getting to orbit as fast as possible but it’s not helpful for having a system that lacks zero-day vulnerabilities.
I understand what you’re saying. It seems like encryption is the answer to that problem, but I don’t pretend to understand how that works, or how to implement it. I do understand that regular software updates can mitigate security threats.
I agree, Musk drives people to the edge of what’s possible. In a business as cut-throat as his, one must race other companies for the rights to very few jobs. SpaceX is essentially breaking ground just ahead of their competition. I have no doubt that the reason they maintain their slim advantage is because they are working ungodly amounts and demanding more of themselves everyday. I also have no doubt that anyone who can’t take the heat would have a dozen other options to choose from.
I can’t guarantee the culture at Boeing or Blue Horizon is any different tho...
I do understand that regular software updates can mitigate security threats.
Software updates give you protection against known attacks but not against zero-day attacks.
Jeff Bezos divorced largely because zero day attacks exist. He Saudi’s hacked his phone by having access to zero days they brought and blackmailed him and he didn’t do what they asked so they released data about his affair.
The US famously had the data about all their personal with security clearances hacked by the Chinese.
Boeing seems to have a quite bureaucratic culture. Given that it’s a defense contractor, I would expect that it has processes where it pays more attention to cyber security.
Blue Horizon is likely also not good at cyber security because not being good at it is the default for companies.
When it comes to the philosophy of space technology, the effects of it on earth shouldn’t be undercounted. Cheap satellites have a lot of implications for privacy when every spot on earth can be surveilled 24⁄7.
Orbital bombardment is a powerful weapon with a strength comparable to nuclear weapons and in cases like attacking underground bunkers even more powerful. At the same time, the existing fears of radiation don’t exist for orbital bombardment. It’s important to think well about how to handle the implications of powerful technology in orbit.
SpaceX tanker ships might be powerful enough to do serious damage and yet they don’t have the safety against cyber attacks that military weapons usually had in the past. What happens if a SpaceX tanker crashes in the White House, removing it completely from the map and nobody really knows why it happened?
Thanks Christian, what makes you think their cyber-security is subpar?
Generally, the cyber-security of most systems is subpar. The military goes to extraordinary lengths to make its systems secure.
Elon Musk’s philosophy of building things includes pushing engineers to work as fast as possible to make progress. That’s helpful for getting to orbit as fast as possible but it’s not helpful for having a system that lacks zero-day vulnerabilities.
I understand what you’re saying. It seems like encryption is the answer to that problem, but I don’t pretend to understand how that works, or how to implement it. I do understand that regular software updates can mitigate security threats.
I agree, Musk drives people to the edge of what’s possible. In a business as cut-throat as his, one must race other companies for the rights to very few jobs. SpaceX is essentially breaking ground just ahead of their competition. I have no doubt that the reason they maintain their slim advantage is because they are working ungodly amounts and demanding more of themselves everyday. I also have no doubt that anyone who can’t take the heat would have a dozen other options to choose from.
I can’t guarantee the culture at Boeing or Blue Horizon is any different tho...
Software updates give you protection against known attacks but not against zero-day attacks.
Jeff Bezos divorced largely because zero day attacks exist. He Saudi’s hacked his phone by having access to zero days they brought and blackmailed him and he didn’t do what they asked so they released data about his affair.
The US famously had the data about all their personal with security clearances hacked by the Chinese.
Boeing seems to have a quite bureaucratic culture. Given that it’s a defense contractor, I would expect that it has processes where it pays more attention to cyber security.
Blue Horizon is likely also not good at cyber security because not being good at it is the default for companies.