Security Enhancement for Commercial Communication Satellite Systems

The telecommunications industry working in consonance with the U.S. government under the direction of the National Security Telecommunication Advisory Committee has been assessing the vulnerabilities of national commercial telecommunications systems in an effort to identify and recommend survivability enhancements. Encryption of the command links on future commercial communications satellites has been identified as one of the highest priority initiatives. At the present, several design choices are available to the commercial satellite operators for enhancing security of the command links. These choices range from the military K boxes, proven on DoD spacecraft, to a command intrusion detection system which capitalizes on the uplink command carrier characteristics to detect intruders. The designs vary in terms of the weight and power penalties and the degree of security afforded. This paper presents concepts for enhancing security of the command links on commercial satellites and specifically describes the command authentication system being incorporated by American Satellite Company.