Spire Global has been awarded a contract by Deloitte to design, manufacture, and manage eight satellites. These satellites will support Deloitte's expansion into the realm of on-orbit cybersecurity, the companies announced on December 1st. Spire Global, specializing in space-based data and satellite services, will provide the spacecraft for Deloitte's envisioned constellation, which will carry Silent Shield, an intrusion-detection payload crafted to identify cyber threats targeting satellites.
The satellites will also incorporate advanced radio-frequency and geolocation payloads to benefit Deloitte's commercial and government clients. This agreement builds upon a partnership that began earlier this year, with Deloitte launching Deloitte-1 on SpaceX’s Transporter-13 rideshare mission. Spire collaborated with Deloitte to validate Silent Shield on that spacecraft, which serves as the initial node in Deloitte's plan to develop a nine-satellite cyber defense testbed in orbit. "Spire's integrated technology gives us a powerful and relevant platform to engineer, test, validate and refine our on-orbit cyber solutions," said Brett Loubert, leader of Deloitte’s U.S. Space practice.
Deloitte believes that effective cybersecurity testing for space systems necessitates operation in orbit, not just ground stations. As satellites become more interconnected and numerous, they face a growing range of cyber risks. Silent Shield features two versions of Deloitte’s intrusion-detection system: a hardware payload, already flying on Deloitte-1 and planned for the remaining satellites, operates out-of-band and processes telemetry data only. It is designed to prevent commands from being sent to the spacecraft, reducing the risk of a compromised payload being used to attack the satellite. A software-only payload is designed for older satellites or platforms that can’t accommodate new hardware. This software package can be run intermittently to accommodate the power limitations of older spacecraft.
Deloitte anticipates launching the eight new satellites in clusters over the next 18 months. This constellation will serve to test cyber defenses, gather operational data, and model how attacks could spread across multiple spacecraft. This is an increasing concern as more satellite networks rely on inter-satellite links and shared ground infrastructure. The company is also leveraging data from Deloitte-1 to train AI models for future autonomous cyber responses in orbit, a capability that industry executives see as increasingly crucial as spacecraft become more software-defined.