A Comparative Study of EU and US Regulatory Approaches to Cybersecurity in Space

This article addresses a need for enhanced transatlantic cooperation and coordination between the European Union (EU) and the United States (US) to prevent, detect, and respond to malicious cyber activities and the need for legislation to ensure that critical infrastructure is secure and resilient. It examines the cybersecurity of space critical infrastructure based on three pillars: cyber resilience, stable cyberspace, and cyber capacity building, and argues that to build up these pillars, the EU and US must have a shared assessment of space security challenges, a sound evaluation of the current strengths and gaps in both regulatory models, and an understanding of the driving factors to legislative change in the two systems. Although both frameworks converge on the importance of risk assessment as being at the heart of effective cybersecurity, this article underscores that neither model is equipped to cover the entire production value chain of space assets. In light of these findings, this article provides several recommendations for how the frameworks can become more resilient, including, inter alia, using public-private partnerships to develop tailored regulations compatible with existing cyber regimes and ensuring that such regulations are specifically designed to improve the cybersecurity of space infrastructure.