Cyber Threats Against and in the Space Domain: Legal Remedies

Connecting traditional military domains (land, sea, and air), cyber and space domains are critical in the modern defense of worldwide assets. These domains leverage evolving technologies and international partnerships to further the national security interests of cooperating nations. International and domestic laws governing cyber and space assets rely on separate and distinct legal frameworks, effectively creating legal silos within each domain. Regardless, application of some key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty overlap with cyber operations and should be applied in the cyber threat context - state responsibility and liability. These provisions provide the framework to determine state liability under specific circumstances. Unique to the space domain, the Outer Space Treaty requires state responsibility for "national activities in outer space," a teen undefined in the treaty. In accordance with the treaty provisions, states provide that responsibility through licensing regulations, statutes, oversight of launches, on-orbit activity, and other space-related conduct. Governing state liability, the liability provision and the subsequent Liability Convention render a state liable even after a state has transferred ownership of a satellite. Cyber operations conducted against space objects further complicate the legal remedy process, but should not preclude application of traditional space law. While the writers of the Outer Space Treaty could not have considered cyber operations as part of these provisions, these responsibility and liability provisions today partially bridge the gap between the legal frameworks mentioned previously. This paper argues legal practitioners can and should apply the responsibility and liability provisions to cyber operations and threats against space objects. Additionally, states can further bridge the gap between domains by addressing cyber operations in domestic space law. These applications modernize the law and reflect the true reality of multi-domain assets and the technological reliance on space and cyber domains.