Snyk Learn in the Exosphere: Securing Space at HackSpaceCon

Last week, I had the pleasure and privilege of attending and speaking at HackSpaceCon 2025 in Cape Canaveral. The conference was filled with some of the brightest minds in aerospace engineering. And then there was me, a cybersecurity professor from Canada. Aerospace isn’t my area of specialization, but it is an area of interest. I spent half a day wandering around the Kennedy Space Center with a smile on my face the whole time as I looked at rockets and read about humanity's upcoming trip to the moon.

However, a topic that is in my area of specialization, developer education, came up quite frequently. Someone at the conference said, “Developing applications for space is hard, but developing applications securely for space is very hard.” 

That sentence summarizes my experience at HackSpaceCon. Significant work goes into securing space. Security is at the heart of every application, whether it’s an app on your phone or an application interacting with a satellite hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. An integer overflow can halt your application or take down the Ariane 5 rocket.

My topic at HackSpaceCon was "Bridging the Chasm: Filling the Security Knowledge Gap between Academia and Industry." It discussed the knowledge gap being left by academia, specifically in the topic of security. Students are taught about the foundations of computer science, such as algorithms and systems analysis, but cybersecurity is often not a mandatory course, and many students leave their computer science degrees without learning about the importance or intricacies of security.

I had a lot of great conversations after the presentation with students and industry professionals. Most said the same. Their studies never prepared them for the security challenges they would face in the real world. That’s why we need to fundamentally restructure how we approach security education, starting from the ground up.

First, security needs to become a core requirement, not an elective, in computer science curricula. Just as we wouldn't graduate a civil engineer without teaching them about structural safety, we shouldn't graduate software engineers without comprehensive security training. This means integrating security concepts throughout the curriculum, not relegating them to a single course that students might skip.

Second, we need practical, hands-on security education that mirrors real-world scenarios. Students should be writing code that handles sensitive data, learning to identify vulnerabilities in existing systems, and understanding the business and safety implications of security failures. The theoretical foundations matter, but so does the practical application.

This is where a platform like Snyk Learn becomes invaluable. Snyk Learn offers free, interactive security training that bridges the gap between academic theory and industry practice. Instead of just reading about SQL injection, developers can work through real scenarios, see the impact of vulnerabilities, and learn to fix them in context.

What makes Snyk Learn particularly relevant for the space industry (and all industries) is its focus on real-world application security. The lessons aren't just about identifying vulnerabilities, they're about building security into the development process from the beginning. This shift-left approach is exactly what space applications need, where fixing problems after deployment might be impossible.

For academic institutions, integrating resources like Snyk Learn into coursework provides students with industry-relevant skills without requiring professors to become security experts overnight. For aerospace companies, it offers a structured way to upskill existing developers and ensure new hires have a baseline of security knowledge.

As we expand human presence beyond Earth, as commercial space ventures proliferate, and as space systems become increasingly interconnected with terrestrial infrastructure, the margin for security errors continues to shrink. But this is all solvable. Through curriculum reform, industry partnership, practical learning resources, and individual commitment to continuous education, we can ensure that all software is built on a foundation of security expertise.

Looking to understand deeper how continuous, contextual, and hands-on training is the most effective way to mitigate risks and foster a culture of security awareness within development teams? Read our whitepaper today.