Put on your eye patch and crank up your best "arrr." And while you're at it, plop down a stack of doubloons and conjure up visions of Captain Jack Sparrow!

Talk about "high crimes" and misdemeanors. The growing pace of space as a commercial resource brings with it the prospect for misdeeds, corruption, piracy, and war.

The Center for the Study of Space Crime, Policy, and Governance (CSCPG) is looking into the risks of piracy in space and solutions to this potentially devastating economic and legal problem.

Speculative non-fiction

"Now is the time to start thinking and talking about mitigating the threat of piracy in space," said Marc Feldman, executive director of the CSCPG. "As we like to say, and please forgive me, Leon Trotsky, but you may not be interested in space piracy, but space pirates are interested in you …"

Feldman, a space entrepreneur and finance professional, has co-authored, with Hugh Taylor, a specialist in cybersecurity, technology, and compliance, "Space Piracy: Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit" (Wiley, 2025). Taylor is director of the CSCPG.

As they write in their newly published book, "we think the phenomenon will occur," and they offer suggestions for mitigating the risk. "We refer to our content as 'speculative nonfiction,'" they add.

Attacks: physical and digital

Given that space piracy is a given, in their view, how best to characterize the first incident occurring - or perhaps it already has taken place?

"We are arguing that it's already started, in very early stages, with attempts to hack satellites," Taylor told Space.com. "However, we think that the increasingly commercial nature of space will result in attacks, physical and digital, on space assets, probably starting with disruptions of Earth-based space assets like launch facilities or ground stations," he said.

As for concrete steps to counter the threat of space piracy, Taylor said that there are a couple of different entities that need to "deal with" the issue.

"From a U.S. perspective, our thought is that there needs to be a lead agency pulling together different stakeholders. This could be the U.S. Space Force, though they don't appear to be structured for it or tasked with this right now," said Taylor.