Launched in March 2025 satellite Deloitte-1 on the Falcon RN 9 became the first of nine spacecraft, which the Deloitte consulting firm plans to launch in the next few years 18 months, to demonstrate Silent Shield's cyber intrusion detection technology, aimed at satellites in space.
Silent Shield – is an out-of-channel cyber intrusion detection system, which provides conditions, system load growth without risk to the mission. Out of channel means, what if the Silent Shield payload is infiltrated by a virus or other cyberweapon, it will not be able to use this bridgehead to attack the satellite itself. Deloitte-1 has several operational missions on board.
The company builds these satellites, to prove, that the protection of space networks from cyberattacks requires the placement of defense systems in orbit, and not only on Earth.
To test cyber defense, who now works for Deloitte-1, the company developed 20 different threat profiles based on the so-called SPARTA framework, created by The Aerospace Corporation.
SPARTA, short for Space Attack Research and Tactic Analysis – it's a tool, which provides unclassified information to space specialists about the, how spacecraft can be compromised by cyber means.
The next eight Deloitte satellites will reach orbit in clusters over the next few years 18 months.
As the space economy expands and dependence on satellite data deepens, a wave of new technologies is emerging to ensure the security of these systems. The question now is, whether these safeguards can evolve quickly enough, to stay ahead of hackers.
For satellite operators, the threat landscape has evolved. Center for the exchange of information and analysis of space incidents (Space ISAC) reported growth 118% space cyber incidents in 2025 year compared to 2024 year, with approx 117 by publicly reported incidents from January to August 2025 year. Space ISAC noted, that these figures reflect only that, which is publicly reported, and the real volume of attacks is higher.
This calculation led Deloitte to invest in the Silent Shield cyber protection system – an orbital testbed for monitoring and protecting space assets against cyber threats.
Military and intelligence agencies view space as an environment of conflict, where adversaries from states to criminal groups are actively trying to undermine their adversaries' military and intelligence capabilities, disrupt operations, steal sensitive data and threaten critical infrastructure.
The Department of Defense requires military programs and contractors to comply, which it calls the Cybersecurity Risk Management Framework (CRMC), framework of cyber security risk management in a consistent and automated way. The Pentagon recently implemented CRMC as a replacement for the older Risk Management Framework (RMF).
Source: https://spacenews.com