[cbanek]

Some might be encrypted, but I don't think they are all encrypted:

https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weat...

Usually the export laws and restrictions (ITAR) refer to the technology used to launch the satellites, not the data they downlink.

But if you had the key, you could also use encrypted satellite data.

(Edit note: the parent changed their text to say intelligence data, which is obviously not what I was talking about)

[dr_orpheus]

The ITAR laws can also refer to data. A lot of the data coming from the ITAR restricted technology is also ITAR controlled because in theory you can inference something about how it works based on the data that is coming from it. This is typically true of data coming from spacecraft payloads or new technology.

Encryption is still not necessarily required, unless you are landing the signal only on a groundstation in the United States.

AWS can handle ITAR controlled data though. They already have the AWS GovCloud for data subjet to ITAR restrictions.

[cbanek]

Yes, ITAR also relates to plans, schematics, software, data, all sorts of things. If anything, the ITAR language itself is very vague.

But usually the science type or payload data is one thing, and then the lower level hardware telemetry is done in a different way.

I've used GovCloud to store ITAR data. It's cool. If you encrypt your ITAR data, you can also store it in a public cloud like S3, but just for storage, you shouldn't decrypt it there or have the keys there.

Source: I worked on the telemetry team at SpaceX.

[tzakrajs]

Pretty sure NOAA also regulates the use and encryption of the data collected. Also the keys are typically in an HSM with lots of security protocol and air gap, so good luck with that.

[X-Istence]

NOAA scans the earth like a big scanner and sends the data down for anyone to pick up and get an image of the globe. It's not encrypted.

[mirashii]

NOAA has (though it may have changed recently) had regulatory control over some types of data collection, such as for any imaging data captured, and indeed had requirements on encryption, both on the link later and even on disk and data encryption for groundstation sites not owned by the operator. It's not a standardized specification for how things are encrypted and it doesn't apply to all data, but there is a process.