Joint guidance on securing space and cyber security for low earth orbit satellite communications – Canadian Centre for Cyber Security
Summary
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, together with the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Australian Space Agency (ASA), New Zealand’s NCSC-NZ and the US National Security Agency (NSA), has published joint guidance on cyber security for low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications (SATCOM).
The guidance outlines the growing cyber risks posed by rapidly expanding LEO constellations, explains key mitigation strategies for users of LEO SATCOM services, and supplies a practical set of questions organisations can use when assessing service providers.
Key Points
- The guidance is a multinational collaboration: Canada, Australia (ACSC & ASA), New Zealand (NCSC-NZ) and the US NSA.
- LEO SATCOM growth increases the cyber attack surface, raising risks to critical networks that rely on these services.
- The document targets users of LEO SATCOM services, offering risk descriptions and actionable mitigations.
- It provides a checklist of critical questions organisations should ask LEO SATCOM providers about security, resilience and supply chain controls.
- Securing LEO SATCOM is vital for commercial communications, national security systems and emergency response capabilities.
- The full guidance is available from the partners and includes technical and governance-focused recommendations for informed procurement and operational decisions.
Why should I read this?
Short and direct: if your organisation uses or depends on LEO satellite links — this is one of those must-see, practical walkthroughs. It saves you hunting around for what matters, gives you the right questions to ask vendors, and flags the biggest security headaches so you can act before they bite.
Context and Relevance
LEO constellations are expanding fast because they offer lower-latency, global coverage. That progress brings real benefits but also broadens the ways adversaries can interfere with or exploit SATCOM systems. This guidance is timely for procurement teams, security architects and operational leaders who must assess vendor security, ensure resilience for critical services, and align supply chain and incident-response planning with evolving space and cyber threats.
Adopting the recommended mitigations and vendor questions helps organisations reduce risk exposure and make better-informed decisions as reliance on LEO SATCOM grows across sectors such as telecommunications, defence, maritime and emergency services.