Satellite communications
Data links relayed through satellites that cover a wide area, commonly with high latency, where anything sent unencrypted on a downlink can be received anywhere in its footprint.
Satellite communications carry data between ground stations, or between a ground station and user terminals, by relaying it through a satellite. They reach ships, aircraft and remote sites that cables do not, and the ISC2 exam outline names them among wireless networks. A satellite link commonly has high latency, because the signal travels a long way up and back down, but how high depends on the orbit: satellites in low Earth orbit are much closer than geostationary ones and add far less delay.
The security point is the footprint. A satellite’s downlink is received across a wide geographic area, so anything sent over it unencrypted can be received by anyone in that area with suitable equipment. Distance and cost do not make the traffic private. For that reason encryption should run end to end, for example through a VPN or TLS, rather than being left to whatever the link provider applies. Latency also affects real-time services, an availability concern when satellite serves as a backhaul network or a backup path.
Exam relevance: a scenario that treats satellite traffic as safe because it is hard to reach is likely to be testing the footprint trap. Candidates are expected to recommend end-to-end encryption, and to avoid assuming one latency figure for every orbit.