Space Cyber

This episode of Secure Line features Dr. Cassandra Steer, a leading expert in space governance and space law, for a timely conversation on the growing national security risks at the intersection of space and cyber. Drawing on a recent workshop she led on the “space-cyber nexus,” Steer explains why satellites and cyber systems are now so deeply interconnected that vulnerabilities in one can quickly become vulnerabilities in the other. The discussion explores how modern societies, militaries, and economies depend on space-based infrastructure for everything from communications and GPS to financial transactions and earth observation, making the disruption of these systems a major strategic risk. The episode also looks at how Canada is positioned in this evolving landscape. Steer highlights both Canada’s strengths, including trusted diplomatic relationships, strong commercial and sovereign space capabilities, and its reputation as a middle power and norm entrepreneur, as well as its weaknesses, particularly the extent to which Canadian space policy has historically been shaped in deference to the United States. The conversation digs into the policy, legal, and operational challenges of bridging siloed expertise across government, industry, defense, and academia, and reflects on why greater “space literacy” is needed among policymakers and national security practitioners. A particularly important part of the discussion focuses on the gendered dimensions of conflict in the space-cyber domain. Steer explains how outages or attacks on dual-use space systems can have disproportionate effects on women and girls, especially in conflict settings where access to communications, education, financial services, and humanitarian protection may depend heavily on satellite connectivity. As cyber and space become ever more central to national security, Canada has an opportunity not only to strengthen its own capabilities, but also to lead internationally on the legal, diplomatic, and human-security questions emerging at this nexus.Correction: In this episode, Dr. Steer said that Sapphire was a Canadian Earth Observation mission, but she meant that it was a Radarsat Constellation Mission. Sapphire is a space situational awareness capability (capable of tracking objects in space).