When it comes to warfare in space, many envision lasers, missiles and maybe a nuclear device tucked into orbit. But Christopher Scolese, who runs the National Reconnaissance Office, isn’t worried about death rays. He’s worried about hackers.

Scolese, director of the agency in charge of U.S. spy satellites, was blunt at the recent Intelligence and National Security Summit: “My number one concern is cyber,” he said.

In an era when adversaries such as China and Russia are fielding advanced anti-satellite technology, that statement is telling. Deploying kinetic or directed-energy weapons in orbit remains technically and financially daunting. Offensive cyber capabilities, by contrast, are far easier to acquire and notoriously hard to trace.

“The cost of admission is relatively cheap in the c

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