Brandon Bailey is a principal engineer for the Cybersecurity and Advanced Platforms Subdivision (CAPS) at The Aerospace Corporation. In this role, Bailey has focused on developing a cyber range to support penetration testing training and in-the-lab evaluation of customers’ implementations, performing vulnerability assessments and penetration testing activities for multiple customers as well as performing cybersecurity research on ground systems and spacecraft systems to better position the federal government with respect to protection of our critical space infrastructure.
While at Aerospace, Bailey has also led the development of the space-focused tactic, technique, and procedures (TTPs) framework called Space Attack Research and Tactic Analysis (SPARTA), which launched in October 2022. SPARTA is intended to provide unclassified information to space professionals about how spacecraft may be compromised via cyber means. The matrix/framework defines and categorizes commonly identified activities that contribute to spacecraft compromises as well as their countermeasures. SPARTA is the continued maturation of a report published in April of 2021 titled Cybersecurity Protections for Spacecraft: A Threat Based Approach, which outlines concepts of defense-in-depth protection necessary to protect spacecraft and presents a threat-oriented approach to space cyber risk assessment.
Bailey is a former GS-15 civil servant at NASA, where he led various cybersecurity efforts and was awarded NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal for his landmark cybersecurity work in 2019. He has extensive experience in the test and evaluation of systems and technology using high-fidelity digital twins with specialization in cybersecurity. In his work at NASA, he built and managed a software testing and research laboratory to include a robust cybersecurity range containing many digital twins of spacecraft technology. Bailey also led information assurance and cybersecurity activities conducting independent technical assessments of many of NASA’s most critical space and ground missions. Bailey’s cybersecurity efforts at NASA included vulnerability assessments, infusing secure coding principles in missions, and counteracting the threat landscape by infusing security analyses in the standard independent verification and validation (IV&V) process.
As a leader in the space cybersecurity field, Bailey works with organizations like the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), and the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems to develop best practices and international standards on space cybersecurity. Additionally, Bailey has been called on to provide briefings to the Wilson Center and testifying to the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics.
Education
Bailey holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from West Virginia University, where he graduated first in the class among the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources graduates.
Awards and Honors
Bailey holds several industry cybersecurity certifications. He has received numerous corporate and performance awards throughout his career, with the most noteworthy being NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal (2019) for groundbreaking cyber work, the Agency Honor Award (2019) for the Enterprise Protection Program (EPP), and NASA’s Early Career Achievement Award (2016). Bailey was also a member of software development team that received honorable mention at NASA’s 2012 and 2016 Software of the Year competition.
