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SpiderOak Announces Contract with U.S. Defense Innovation Unit to Demonstrate OrbitSecure Zero-Trust Protocol On-Orbit

 Nov. 2, 2022

 SpiderOak has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to deliver the company's OrbitSecure zero-trust protocol on-orbit. The project will demonstrate end-to-end cybersecurity for the Department of Defense's future Hybrid Space Architecture, an initiative the U.S. Congress has begun referring to as the "Outernet" through legislation.

As commercial space companies continue delivering increasingly innovative capabilities at an unprecedented rate, the Pentagon grows more eager to incorporate these technologies while securing and defending these hybrid (mixed commercial and government) networks across multiple domains. With escalating threats from China and Russia, it is more critical than ever to ensure secure global, ubiquitous, and hybrid connectivity throughout the space domain for commercial, civil, and military users, including international allies and partners.

SpiderOak will demonstrate its OrbitSecure zero-trust software suite on-orbit to support DIU's development of a scalable architecture capable of communicating across government and commercial networks, while also remaining trusted and relevant in a dynamic threat environment. SpiderOak's contract with DIU is in collaboration with the United States Space Force Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC).

SpiderOak's zero-trust OrbitSecure software was developed for 21st century space needs and is also backward compatible to the Space Force's existing on-orbit constellations. OrbitSecure will demonstrate an enhanced space-domain cyber resilience even when network hardware or application software has been compromised.

"Warfighters have identified cyber-attacks as the 'soft underbelly' of the satellites on which we depend for our defense and modern life," said John Moberly, Senior Vice President for Space, SpiderOak. "We are thrilled to be selected by DIU and SWAC and partnered with York Space Systems to secure this mission and we are very much looking forward to working with the other companies selected to support the entire Hybrid Space Architecture into the future. Jointly we are enabling a foundational layer of commercial industry and allied capabilities to ensure our national security is protected from the ground and from space."