United News of Bangladesh

Russia disabled thousands of satellite modems in Ukraine and other European countries on the day it invaded Ukraine in 2022, disrupting communications. Now, an artificial intelligence-assisted tool is being used to help protect satellite networks from similar attacks amid growing concerns over Russian aggression and cyber threats from Iran. Cybersecurity company Atalanta has launched Argo, a product that includes technology being used to test the resilience of Viasat’s satellite communications network, which was targeted in the 2022 cyberattack. Cybersecurity experts say the technology offers a new way to protect critical infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. Atalanta says Argo uses what it calls “software understanding,” combining advanced mathematics and AI to examine software and internet-connected systems and identify vulnerabilities more thoroughly. Recent conflicts in Ukraine and Iran have highlighted the growing risks posed by cyberattacks on essential services. Several US government agencies have warned this summer that Iranian hackers have targeted water and wastewater systems and other critical infrastructure. “The tools and techniques of yesterday do not scale for today,” Atalanta CEO and co-founder Anjana Rajan told The Associated Press, saying software understanding would be increasingly important for systems critical to the United States. Nick Saunders, Viasat’s chief of cyber strategy, said the technology is helping the company strengthen its network against future attacks while also providing mathematical evidence to support its security claims. “We have built over the past year, working with Atalanta ... a capability where we can start to develop an understanding of how our systems are more resilient against attacks,” Saunders said. Atalanta is also working on the Genesis Mission, a Department of Energy initiative aimed at developing autonomous nuclear reactors. Greg Shannon, chief cybersecurity scientist at the government’s Idaho National Laboratory, said such technology could eventually become a standard part of testing new systems. “In a decade or two, I would expect it to be just part of the standard development tool kits,” Shannon said. He noted that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has invested billions of dollars in related technology over the past two decades. That research helped create demand for systems such as Argo. DARPA, the US military’s advanced research agency, has played a key role in developing technologies including the internet and stealth aircraft. “They've probably invested well over $2 billion in various programs to advance formal methods ... and we're finally seeing them start to come to fruition,” Shannon said. Last year, Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael said in a prerecorded address to a DARPA software conference that he viewed the mathematics behind Atalanta’s technology as an important part of the military’s cybersecurity future. He said he wanted it to become the Department of Defense’s “gold standard” for cybersecurity.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to partner with Indian companies to locally manufacture satellite communications equipment, including antenna systems and user terminal devices, as it gears up to launch its high-speed Starlink satellite broadband services in the country next year. SpaceX is excited to find ways to work together with the Indian industry for manufacturing products for its Starlink devices,” Matt Botwin, director (market access with the Starlink program), said on Monday during SpaceX’s first official interaction with Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary Anshu Prakash, reports The Economic Times. The company always looks for opportunities to maximise the efficiency of its (global) supply chain, and “is now looking forward to working with its partners in India to recognise those opportunities”, Botwin said. This was also SpaceX’s first official comments on its India plans in the satellite communications space. The DoT had called a meeting with global satellite companies to discuss a holistic roadmap for locally manufacturing satellite communications gear and ways to create an enabling regulatory regime for global low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation operators to establish in-country gateways in India. Also read: SpaceX to send Dogecoin-funded satellite to the Moon in 2022 Those present at the meeting included officials from OneWeb, Viasat, Hughes, Airtel NSE 0.08 %, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, Department of Space, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. India's satellite based communications space is heating up with the likes of SpaceX, Bharti Global-backed OneWeb and Jeff Bezos-led Amazon’s Project Kuiper looking to enter the country’s nascent satellite broadband space starting next year. During the meeting, Botwin, one of Musk’s key lieutenants, said, “SpaceX has been working with the Indian industrial sector for a long time, buying steel and steel-tubing for many of its rockets.” It is now committed to manufacturing hardware and satellite components and components of (satellite broadband) networks in India, he said. The company, known for its vertical integration, manufactures the gamut of rockets, antennae systems and user terminal devices. Also read: SpaceX capsule departs station with 4 astronauts, heads home SpaceX has been accepting pre-orders for beta version of its Starlink satellite internet service in India for a fully refundable deposit of $99 (above Rs 7,000). According to its website, the company’s satellite broadband services are being targeted in India in 2022, although availability, it says, is subject to regulatory approvals. During the meeting, satellite companies strongly discouraged the Indian government from auctioning mmWave satellite spectrum in the 28 GHz band for 5G mobile services, saying such a move would impact their data download speeds and geographical reach in India. “Unlike the mobile use case, by its very nature of usage, satellite spectrum is not dedicated to a single satellite operator, and the world over, it is not auctioned but assigned as per International Telecom Union (ITU) regulations,” said Anil Prakash, director general of Satcom Industry Association of India (SIA-India), who was present at the meeting with Prakash. The coveted 28 GHz spectrum – with a band range from 27.5 GHz to 29.5 GHz – is currently used exclusively by satellite players but it is considered a highly efficient band for 5G services. Also read: Biggest space station crowd in decade after SpaceX arrival Telcos, on their part, have repeatedly told DoT that unavailability of 28 GHz spectrum could jolt India’s 5G business case. Without these airwaves, 5G deployment costs would surge and make the ultra-fast wireless broadband service unaffordable in the country, they said.