Review - S 4123 Introduced – Satellite Cybersecurity

Earlier this week, Sen Ossoff (D,GA) introduced S 4123, the Enhancing Satellite Cybersecurity Act. Vaguely similar to HR 7629, this bill would also require a GAO report on satellite cybersecurity for commercial satellite systems used by Federal agencies and CISA to provide information on satellite cybersecurity practices for those systems. There is no spending authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Ossoff is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in the bill that would engender any specific opposition. This bill would receive extensive bipartisan support if considered in Committee. This bill could make it to the floor of the Senate under the unanimous consent process.

Commentary

This bill is much more tightly focused on commercial satellite systems used by the Federal government than the earlier two satellite cybersecurity bills, HR 7629 and S 3511. This may increase its chance of consideration and ultimate passage. That would also mean that for some period of time, likely years, there would be no mandated federal focus on cybersecurity for commercial satellite systems that did not supply services to the Federal government. It would be an interesting trade-off, one that the commercial satellite industry probably needs to weigh in on.

 

For more details about this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4123-introduced - subscription required.