Homeland security risk management is too often reactive. Technology evolves, critical infrastructure design is altered, societal and market priorities shift, and new vulnerabilities are created. Simultaneously, threat actors evolve, either in anticipation of or in response to these shifts, introducing new tactics. This fundamentally changes the risk equation, with new risks emerging and mitigation and management strategies frequently lagging.
Viewed through a homeland security lens, this scenario has unfolded with the widespread use of TikTok. The incredibly popular app, owned and operated by the Chinese company ByteDance, has become a significant risk to U.S. homeland security in terms of data protection, privacy, and foreign adversarial propaganda. Earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray articulated the concern in his Senate testimony, stating, “The key point is that the parent company is, for all intents and purposes, beholden to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].”
The U.S. government’s assessment aligns with those of other allied nations. For example, a recent report from the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service (no stranger to information risk)…
