Space CISOs Fault Starlink Cutoff, Urge Sovereign Control

By John Maximus · Published 4 November 2026
Reported from named sources and checked against the publishers linked in this article. Corrections: editorial and corrections policy.

Chief information security officers from three satellite operators publicly criticised SpaceX over the recent loss of Starlink and Starshield service to Ukrainian forces, speaking on a Monday panel at the CyberSat conference in Reston, Virginia, according to trade publication Via Satellite. Security chiefs at Iridium, Vantor and SES said the episode will push governments and commercial customers toward sovereign satellite arrangements, clearer mission terms with providers and multi-vendor redundancy.

Key facts

• The restrictions lasted nearly 10 days, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on October 25 that Starlink performance had returned to normal, according to The Asia Live.
• Via Satellite said the panellists spoke without knowing the details of the service agreement between SpaceX and its customer.
• SES says the kill switch and payloads of the EU’s IRIS² system will sit under the control of its EU partner, with initial operations planned to begin by 2030.

Why it matters

The dispute moves the argument about satellite dependence from politicians to the people who run security for rival constellations. Their position, as reported by Via Satellite, is that a provider changing a service mid-mission without warning should not become normal industry practice — a question that bears on any government, carrier or enterprise signing up to a single satellite internet supplier.

What the security chiefs said

Victor Einfeldt, director of IT security at satellite operator Iridium, condemned the action outright. “It was a crappy thing for them to do,” he said, according to Via Satellite, adding that service should not be withdrawn in wartime without first telling the customer, and that this cannot become the standard for operating constellations.

Einfeldt also suggested that with more nations building or weighing their own constellations, sovereignty may soon be defined by who owns the kill switch, the outlet reported.

Norm Laudermilch, CISO at Vantor, which operates a low-Earth-orbit imaging constellation and AI-driven spatial intelligence software, drew a distinction the panel returned to repeatedly: this was not an outage but a change to a critical operational service a customer was relying on for its mission, Via Satellite said.

Laudermilch expects the episode to drive competition as buyers look for resilience and layered capability, telling the conference that instead of one satellite internet provider he may need three, with automatic routing or failover built into the end system. That is a procurement decision as much as a security one: paying for two standby networks changes what satellite connectivity costs a defence ministry or a carrier, and shifts the question from price per terminal to the price of being able to switch. Neither outlet reported figures for what that redundancy would cost.

Sovereignty without your own satellites

There was general agreement on the panel that sovereignty does not require every nation to build its own constellation, provided mission expectations between customer and provider are explicit, according to Via Satellite. Vinit Duggal, SES CISO and vice president of network engineering, pointed to IRIS² as a model of sovereign commercial partnership, in which the sovereign partner keeps visibility of the assets even under a managed service. SES leads the medium-Earth-orbit and user-terminal components of the system.

How the Ukraine disruption played out

The Asia Live reported that the restrictions hit frontline communications and efforts to intercept Russian attack drones. Ukrainian presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov said the speed restrictions caused several military missions to fail, the outlet said, and Zelenskyy repeatedly warned the disruption was affecting Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.

Restoration followed days of complaints and lobbying involving Ukraine’s European partners, particularly Germany and Poland, which help finance Kyiv’s access to the service, according to The Asia Live. Announcing the recovery, Zelenskyy said speeds were back where they needed to be and thanked Americans and international partners who had intervened. The episode has sharpened scrutiny of Europe’s dependence on Starlink and Starshield.

The push for alternatives

Three days before that announcement, on October 22, Finnish space technology company ICEYE and telecommunications equipment maker Nokia signed a Letter of Intent with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence on space-based communications. Nokia said the cooperation will explore secure, sovereign, high-performance broadband low-Earth-orbit satellite communications for governments, covering defence operations, border security, emergency services and disaster response, per The Asia Live. Kyiv has separately put the first satellite of its own alternative into orbit.

The Asia Live explains that LEO networks use satellites orbiting relatively close to Earth, giving broadband with lower latency than geostationary systems and service where terrestrial infrastructure has been destroyed or is unavailable. Zelenskyy said modern warfare has shown reliable communications are a matter of national security and that countries must rely on capabilities they can control.

Poland is pursuing a similar project with ICEYE, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk describing the outcome as a Polish Starlink, the outlet said. Such plans echo pitches for national constellations elsewhere. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, however, told reporters Starlink is really necessary for Ukraine and that Europe cannot replace the capability in the short term, according to The Asia Live.

The same argument outside Europe

Einfeldt’s kill-switch test is already being applied in markets where the service is not even on sale. The Asia Live reports the controversy has fed debate in India, where Starlink has yet to establish a commercial service: Zoho Corporation founder Sridhar Vembu said the incident showed the country has no option but to build its own technology, and former Indian Air Force pilot and defence analyst Ajay Ahlawat argued it exposed the danger of depending on a privately controlled system whose operator decides how and where service is provided. The Observer Research Foundation and the Centre for Aerospace Power and Strategic Studies have published analyses on the national security risks of over-reliance on Starlink, the outlet said. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has also said he is worried about potential manipulation of the Starlink system.

Those reactions land on the same two demands the CISOs made from the stage: a buyer should know who can throttle the link, and the mission terms should say so in writing before the shooting starts. Where availability is the obstacle, as in India, that argument favours building; where the service is already installed, as in Ukraine and Poland, it favours contracts and second suppliers. The untested part is whether providers will agree to write such terms — and at what price the industry’s new appetite for three links instead of one gets settled.

One caveat on the record so far: this account rests on the two trade reports cited above. Neither published the service agreement at the centre of the dispute, and neither reported a response from SpaceX to the panel’s criticism.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Starshield, and how is it different from Starlink?

Via Satellite describes Starshield as the military variant of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service. During the recent disruption, the trade publication reported that Ukrainian forces lost connectivity to both Starlink and Starshield while conducting combat operations against Russia.

Who does Elon Musk blame for Starlink’s delayed launch in India?

The Asia Live reports that the SpaceX chief executive complained earlier in October that “certain oligarchs” were blocking the launch of Starlink services in India, where the company has been pressing to enter the telecommunications market.

Why did a PHP vulnerability come up at a satellite security panel?

Via Satellite reports the CISOs discussed a PHP web scripting vulnerability, found using AI and announced by US cybersecurity agencies in an October 21 CVE report, which prompted affected companies to take sites offline for patching. SES CISO Vinit Duggal said some 70% of the internet runs on PHP and that SES responded without material impact. Vantor CISO Norm Laudermilch said that within 48 hours of the disclosure his company was seeing four to five hundred thousand attacks a day probing for exploits.

Is the satellite industry ready to secure data centres in orbit?

“We are not ready,” SES CISO Vinit Duggal told the CyberSat panel, according to Via Satellite, citing major engineering and cybersecurity hurdles. Vantor’s Norm Laudermilch said operators will not have real-time access to intrusion detection data from a spacecraft, so the satellite itself will have to handle those functions; Vantor’s next-generation Vantage and Pulse imaging satellites, with automated onboard detection and response, are scheduled to launch between 2027 and 2029.