Having a general conversation about risk is about as useful as having one about AI, IoT, or any other technology. These are terms that can mean nothing and everything at the same time. A statement like, “We need to do something about IoT” is vague to the point of not being useful. “What are the risks to our organization,” sounds similarly insightful and commanding but means little.

Any conversation about the concept of convergence should start in the logical place: chocolate and peanut butter. Convergence is when two (or more) things layered together create a capability that is greater than the individual components.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was born in a different time. One year, two months, and twenty-four days after the attack on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and United Flight 93, DHS was born. The Homeland Security Act was signed on November 25, 2002, and carried with it fresh and open wounds from the horrifying attack just over a year past.

Homeland security has not traditionally been thought of as a mission area supporting space activities. Homeland security organizations, however, have been long time consumers of space data and services. Today, the space domain has opened for commercial activity and geopolitical competition alike.

Security and privacy are two sides of the same coin – it’s hard to have one without the other. Yet there can be a tension between them. Strong legal and technological protections, including encryption, are necessary to effectively protect private data and communications. Yet terrorists, smugglers of dangerous weapons and drugs, human traffickers, and perpetrators of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) sometimes use end-to-end encrypted messaging (E2EE) to prevent their crimes from being discovered by law enforcement. Proposed U.S. laws such as the EARN IT Act seek to end E2EE messaging so that law enforcement need not fear criminals "going dark."

Quoted in the article.

“While America continues to grow its commercial space opportunities, our adversaries will also seek to disrupt the advantages the space economy will bring,” the document states. “The Department must therefore support America’s expanding space ecosystem by recognizing its importance to the security of the homeland and through a DHS Space Policy that defines and updates DHS’s role in this important domain.”