Frank Rose is Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, and a long-time Capitol Hill, Pentagon and State Department security leader. Attached is his “farewell address” at the University of Virginia after eight years in the Obama State Department, and it is worth a careful read. Rose weaves together the information security challenges America faces in space, cyberspace, and undersea in interlocking ways many people have not considered. We all know about hacking activities by the likes of China and Russia, but Secretary Rose points out the extraordinary vulnerabilities we have in outer space, and trans-oceanic communications in undersea fiber-optic cables. There is strong reason to believe potential adversaries are contemplating disrupting these heavily used, expensive communications networks. The orbital assets alone generate over $300 billion in economic activity each year, are heavily commercial, and are vulnerable to interception or disruption. Secretary Rose’s speech can be read here.
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