A boom in space-based intelligence is coming. Can ground networks keep up?
tl;dr: this article talks about the increasing amount of sensors in space and new types (and great quatities) of data being transmitted down; references how NGA not only collects their own data but purchases a ton from private firms;
The interesting part of this article to me is how a domain that used to be exclusively within the provenance of nation-state actors is becoming rapidly democratized. Half a century ago, the only entities with eyes in the sky were a handful of states who, through dedicated resourcing and just plain obscurity, could nearly guarantee that they were the only ones who had access to see and sense the ground from above.
Today, there are countless firms operating a wide variety of sensors – imagery, radar, thermal, RF, and more. As we’ve read and discussed in this course, cybersecurity is often not a primary concern for these firms. In the modern area, there are a plethora of attackers who could conceivably obtain data they can’t collect themselves within this target rich environment.
As a result, data and insights that used to only be held by a few states can now be acquired by far more. High resolution real-time imagery used to be only owned by the US and the Soviet Union, but now firms are doing some fo the best imagery and if they don’t secure it, other ne’er-do-wells could obtain that data with relative ease. It could then be used for targeting for crime, physical violence, or all sorts of other purposes.