European Space Agency (ESA)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is an international organisation established to coordinate space activities in Europe. Its programmes aim to explore the Earth, the Solar System and the Universe, develop satellite technologies, promote the European aerospace industry and collaborate with space agencies in other countries.
Among its programmes, the Copernicus programme is one of the most important, co-funded and managed by the European Commission in collaboration with ESA and other partners. It is an Earth observation initiative that provides accurate and comprehensive data and information on a global scale to monitor the environment and the safety of our planet. At the heart of the Copernicus programme is its space component, consisting of the Sentinel satellite family, developed and operated by ESA. Each satellite in the Sentinel constellation is dedicated to a specific mission, ensuring comprehensive coverage and a constant flow of data.
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ESA’s CyberSecurity Needs
While the data provided through the Copernicus programme is “free and open”, it remains extremely important to ensure the integrity and availability of information to support the services offered through the Copernicus Services, including Emergency and Security. Given its strategic nature, the programme must ensure its resilience to any cyber threats that could compromise its functionality and reliability.
In this context, within the Copernicus programme, a fundamental role is played by the Coordination Service, a central point for the management and monitoring of the performance of the services of the ESA Operations Framework (EOF) of the Copernicus Space Component (CSC): currently EOF-CSC consists of about 25 services with different purposes and functions such as Data Processing, Data Quality, Data Dissemination, Data Long Term Archiving, and other services necessary for the satellite data processing chain; the Coordination Service includes all the activities necessary to ensure the correct orchestration of operations between the multiple services by monitoring the overall performance of the associated operations.
Security objectives of the Coordination Service
At the end of 2024, Serco Italia was awarded a tender, as Prime Contractor, for the supply of services on the Coordination Service for a duration of 40 months for the end customer ESA, entrusting all CyberSecurity activities to Exprivia.
Specifically, starting from January 2025, Exprivia is dealing with:
- Cybersecurity governance with definition of security processes and procedures;
- Design of CyberSecurity architectures;
- Security Monitoring of the Coordination Service infrastructure;
- Support to the coordination in the management of security incidents of EOF-CSC;
- Management and development of a Performance Dashboard capable of displaying security performance indicators for all EOF-CSC constituent services.
Collaboration between DFCY and DFDA
With the tender won, Exprivia’s Defense & Aerospace and Cybersecurity Digital Factories have begun a fruitful collaboration by combining their experience in the aerospace domain with their high Cybersecurity skills, respectively.
The team supporting the activities consists of at least 20 highly specialized professionals in various different areas including: Security Governance, Vulnerability Management, Data protection, Application Security, Network Security, Security Monitoring.
Advantages for the end customer
Security and resilience: Cybersecurity governance activities and architectural design will help create a more robust and secure operating environment. The European Space Agency will benefit from well-defined processes and procedures, reducing vulnerabilities and increasing the overall resilience of the Copernicus EOF Coordination Service systems.
Continuous monitoring: The monitoring of security events will allow a timely identification of suspicious activities. This constant monitoring, combined with coordination in incident management across all Copernicus EOF services, ensures a rapid and effective response to any threats, minimising potential damage and downtime.
Visibility and control: The Performance Dashboard provided by Exprivia will provide the European Space Agency with a clear and centralized view of the safety performance for all Copernicus EOF services. This analytical tool will allow the agency to monitor performance indicators, make informed decisions, and have greater control over the security posture. The ability to visualize and analyze this data is critical to proactive security management.
Dedicated security team: By entrusting the management of IT security to a dedicated team, ESA benefits from the support of high-profile specialists. This support guarantees the adoption of the most advanced skills in the sector, protecting the operations of the Coordination Service through expert and constant monitoring.
