Over reliance on networks and satellite-based communication without adequate safeguards in place, and an unpracticed ability to sustain operations offline is a huge Operational vulnerability ... and puts our nation at Strategic risk.
Now and then, something sneaks out in to open-source that serves as a good chance to remind everyone again; we do not own the electromagnetic spectrum; satellites are fair game.
You can add to the list; when you talk on your neighbor's phone - assume he is listening in. Via Wired's Noah@Danger Room.
The Pentagon is so starved for bandwidth that it’s paying a Chinese satellite firm to help it communicate and share data.... and in wartime you will get all that additional bandwidth (in addition to what you are already using), from whom exactly?
U.S. troops operating on the African continent are now using the recently-launched Apstar-7 satellite to keep in touch and share information. And the $10 million, one-year deal lease — publicly unveiled late last week during an ordinarily-sleepy Capitol Hill subcommittee hearing — has put American politicians and policy-makers in bit of a bind.
...
“That bandwidth was available only on a Chinese satellite,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Doug Loverro told a House Armed Services Committee panel, in remarks first reported by InsideDefense.com. “We recognize that there is concerns across the community on the usage of Chinese satellites to support our warfighter. And yet, we also recognize that our warfighters need support, and sometimes we must go to the only place that we can get it from.”
