Cybersecurity, ESA chooses the Italian Leonardo to protect European space systems

ESA has chosen the Italian Leonardo to build its new operational center for the cyber security of European space resources. The national aerospace giant is in fact prime contractor and head of a team of 19 European companies that will give birth to the new Cyber-Security Operations Center (C-Soc) of the European Space Agency. It is a key infrastructure for Europe’s economy and security and will be operational from 2024. Once in place, the C-Soc will strengthen the cyber protection of European space systems by monitoring and managing vulnerabilities around the clock and enhancing the security of Member States and ESA partners. Leonardo announced today that it has signed a contract with the European Space Agency to design, develop, build, validate and operate, under the technical responsibility of the ESA Security Office, the new Cyber-Security Operations Center (C-Soc) of the An agency that was created with the aim of protecting European space resources and the related ground segment – control centers and operations management – but also the Earth-Earth and Earth-Space connections as well as those between the infrastructures from cyber threats. orbit. Thanks to a distributed architecture, the new Cyber-Security Operations Center will be able to provide resilient and redundant cyber security coverage, monitoring and managing the vulnerabilities of space systems 24 hours a day and 365 days a year and enhancing the security of Member States. and partner of ESA. “Ensuring the cyber resilience of space resources is fundamental for Europe’s economy and security in a scenario characterized by a constantly increasing hybrid threat and the growing importance of satellite data in accessing essential services for everyone’s life. citizens and for the activities of companies, states and global decision makers “underlined Tommaso Profeta, Managing Director of Leonardo’s Cyber ​​Security Division. Profeta noted that “as an Italian company dedicated to the protection of technologies for the security of strategic assets, we are proud to be able to put our skills at the service of ESA for the protection of space assets and systems in terms of confidentiality, integrity and availability. “. Leonardo, as Prime Contractor, will be the leader of an industrial consortium made up of 19 companies from Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Estonia, Romania, relying on the experience gained by protecting over 5,000 networks and 70,000 users from the cyber threat. in 130 countries and leading large international projects such as the NATO Computer Incident Response Full Operational Capability (Ncirc Foc) program, which guarantees the security of information and communications at approximately 75 NATO sites located in 29 countries around the world.