So, first of all, let me state up front that I'm not a lawyer. I don't even like them that much. However, the first thing that comes to mind regarding this is that trading various national regulations for the not-universally-recognized-and-probably-not-fully-litigated "space law" frontier, such as the moon treaty and what not, doesn't seem like it would really be "better" as opposed to "differently bad."
In terms of technology, I'm sure you're aware that space is a harsh, unforgiving environment fraught with peril and unique dangers. Few processors are sufficiently radiation hardened and certified for operating in space, usually older ones or very expensive, custom designed SoCs. Spacecraft must be designed with multiple redundant systems which are constantly error-checking each other's memory, using their own as parity. The classic BOFH line of "cosmic rays" being at fault are actually relevant. Sun spots, ion storms, atmospheric interference, etc. are all going to come into play and need to be accounted for. Data integrity is at stake in this case, so appropriate file system selection (such as ZFS), in addition to properly designed and tested redundant hardware is a must. Hopefully this operation actually has electrical and aerospace engineers who have been around the block.
From a security standpoint, I do think it could raise the bar for the types of attackers who could target the system. You're mostly dealing with nation states at that point, in terms of "Cyber," although let's just say that sniffing data from Iridium SATCOM is something anyone can do with stuff bought off of the internet (HackRF, I'm looking at you...). In terms of disaster planning though, you're asking for issues with at least the following, as far as I can see:
- Capacity growth is capped by how fast you can build and launch spacecraft
- Constructing a single satellite and launching it probably approachs the cost of building an additional land-based data center, but with less capacity
- Space debris from man-made sources, as well as natural sources is a problem. Even small bits of rock or metal are flying at such velocities that collisions can be catastrophic.
- Government customers might find that nodes believed to be hosting their data can be knocked into in believably random/accidental ways where it is unlikely someone's going to "accidentally" drop a rock on an Amazon GovCloud data center.
So, it is an interesting idea but it seems hoping for a speedy and effective Brexit might be the easier way to avoid GDPR 😉
-- wdf//CISSP, CSSLP
