“The ESA team then recovered the satellite and successfully reverted its software to a previous, safe and secure state,” says Simon Plum, Head of ESA Mission Operations.

“This was a well-controlled experiment, in which ESA knew in advance what was going to happen, supervised the tests and retained control throughout the demonstration. The test was done in full isolation from ESA’s operational missions and enabled us to learn even more about possible cyber threats. Thanks to OPS-SAT, our teams across ESA and to the activity’s participants and organisers, such as CYSEC and Thales, we can now further enhance the security of operations at ESOC.”