Media

For decades, space was imagined as a kind of neutral commons — a quiet layer of infrastructure floating serenely above earthly conflict. At the Munich Cyber Security Conference this week, that idea sounded less like policy and more like nostalgia.

The digital world is under siege. Hackers, organized crime, and rogue nation-states relentlessly probe for vulnerabilities, exploiting any weakness to compromise sensitive data. If the best-prepared and best-equipped organizations in the world can fall prey to these attacks, how can others hope to defend themselves using the same vulnerable infrastructure?

Digital transformation has pushed enterprise and government operations into the cloud, across borders, and into mission-critical, latency-sensitive domains. At the same time, cyberattacks have grown in frequency and sophistication, targeting the soft underbelly of existing infrastructure—its exposure, complexity, and overdependence on terrestrial intermediaries.

Planning for business continuity has never been more important. Today, a network outage doesn’t just cause inconvenience—it halts production, severs access to systems, and breaks continuity. And as dependence on cloud-based tools and remote access intensifies, the cost of downtime keeps climbing.

The global telecommunications infrastructure we rely on today was built and optimized to deliver the internet—now essential to modern social and business life. But networks designed for maximum reach and cost efficiency are not always the best fit for secure, mission-critical operations. A foundational shift is required: a network built from the ground up for secure, deterministic, and sovereign operations.

Buddy Bayer, Chief Operating Officer at Colt Technology Services, discusses the new connectivity requirements Colt’s global customers are seeking, collaborating with Rivada’s Outernet, and upcoming industry trends.

Handelsblatt discussed with Clemens Kaiser, Deputy CEO and Chief Program Officer of Rivada Space Networks, why space and defense belong together and what priorities Germany should set.

Clemens Kaiser, Chief Program Officer and Deputy CEO, discusses why space and defense belong together and what priorities Germany should set.

The polar regions, once remote frontiers, are now arenas of intense strategic, economic, and scientific activity. As climate change opens new sea lanes and uncovers resources, maritime and aviation traffic is surging. The High North is facing a connectivity paradox: as the need for data grows exponentially, the available solutions remain a patchwork of high-latency, low-bandwidth, and jurisdictionally compromised options.