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After seeing Wi-Fi network named “STINKY,” Navy found hidden Starlink dish on US warship
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2024
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That seems like a significant security risk
Probably not for the reason you think.
Like, it wouldn't be patched into anything official
But it means Musk knew where that ship was 24/7, and I'm pretty sure that's why Ukraine's military stopped using it. Musk tipped off Putin to troop movements.
It's emmitting radio signals that an enemy could use to help locate the ship.
What?
Surface ships are in constant communication with stuff...
You can't just find a signal in the middle of the ocean. Musk can find a starlink signal tho, because he can see what Starlink connects to and it's gps location.
Yeah but if they go on mission and “go dark” then you still have this starlink thing that may or may not be disabled by the person smuggling it on board. It may also be connected to official things if the owner has bad intentions, or if someone else who does finds it and co-opts it.
There is a lot that could go wrong with unauthorized radio transmission equipment on a warship, and not all of it is obvious.
You can't connect a star link to siprnet.
The worst a bad actor could do is constantly transmitting location and other combat data.
Can you connect a computer? Because if so, that same computer can then be connected to the starlink, no?
I know absolutely nothing about secure government networking, I'm just kind of assuming that something has to be able to connect to both individually and also simultaneously.
sipr is very strict about what it is letting connect to it. Which is why you rarely hear about breaches. Notable incidents like Manning or Snowden both involved usage of physical media, which has been severely restricted since. Plus Snowden was an admin, and not on SIPRNet, but some NSA systems.
To add, SIPRNet is entirely isolated from NIPRNet or the Internet.
Well, the Starlink could be connected by an admin to a computer that is connected to SIPRNet, right? It exposes itself as just a router.
I mean, assuming the Starlink was brought on board by someone with authorization to be on board, any possible adversarial situation would necessarily be an internal issue to begin with.
Personally, I think the most likely answer involves an Xbox.
Nothing Sipr is going to have a wi-fi. At least, not at the tactical level. God knows what goes on with secure cellphones and stuff. However a Sipr computer is still a computer and if you hook in the wrong cable then you've breached the network. Any bad actor knowing where the ship is and with sufficient information is going to try and drop malware to the router. That malware would load to any computer attached and if it happens to find itself on a secure computer it then attempts to phone home or cause havoc.
Which is why hooking a green cable into a red computer usually means you unhook it, power it down, cart it off to IT, and then hope the punishment isn't too bad. (Ranges from push ups to half pay for an honest mistake.)
It's as easy as plugging in the wrong cable.
Not always
Ships absolutely practice turning everything off.
Depends on where your sensors are and how much dispersion the dish has. If you are flying a surveillance plane into the "beam" then you can passively spot the ship.
Uh, this was the primary way the Allies defeated the U-Boats in WWII.
You say that like Elon is personally looking at that information.
Presumably, there would be a large number of people at the company with access to that information, all of whom could be bribed or otherwise persuaded to share it.
No they actually do go dark sometimes for exactly this reason. Of course there's always some signal source but it's the difference between lighting up like a Christmas tree and running a single IR light.