Announcing Nicolas Chaillan and Octave Klaba as keynote speakers at CYSAT

March 21st, 2022, Paris – CYSAT is pleased to announce Nicolas Chaillan and Octave Klaba as their keynote speakers at the only European event entirely dedicated to cybersecurity for the space industry, held at Station F in Paris and online, on April 6-7, 2022. 

Nicolas Chaillan

Nicolas Chaillan was responsible for the Air Force’s cloud-migration, implementing DoD-wide DevSecOps practices, and overviewing AI development efforts. He had the chance to work extensively with US industrial leaders, in particular Space-X, and supervised the creation of the Hack-a-sat challenge. He resigned in October 2021 to protest over the slow pace of technological transformation in the US saying that “US doesn’t stand ‘a fighting chance’ if Russia and China combine cyber tech”.

Octave Klaba

Octave Klaba, the Poland-born French entrepreneur, is the founder of OVHcloud. He will discuss the importance of data from space regarding sovereignty and security, as well as his views on the booming space market in the light of his recent investment.

As part of the Hack CYSAT challenge, three teams composed of ethical hackers and security researchers will be explaining the typical vulnerabilities found in space systems and the tools available to improve their security. The three teams selected by a jury composed of representatives from ESA, CYSEC, YesWeHack and James Pavur (ethical hacker) are : 

  • BAEVR, a team of security professionals from BAE Systems (UK), will show how a known vulnerability can corrupt the images collected by a camera on board
  • JBJ, a team of security researchers from Finland will show that malicious code can be remotely installed and executed on board a spacecraft via a simple escalation of privileges
  • SpaceBrokers from Germany, will show how a ransomware can be successfully deployed on a satellite

The demonstrations originally planned on a flying satellite belonging to the European Space Agency (ESA) are however postponed due to the current geopolitical context.

Other speakers and panelists include security experts from the European space agencies: Massimo Mercati, Head of the ESA Security Office, Bruno Vermeire, Chair EU Space Programme Security Accreditation Board. As well as security experts from industrial players like OneWeb, BAE Systems, Airbus, or Thales. 

 Learn more about the conference, keynotes, and how to register