this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
175 points (97.3% liked)

News

23274 readers
3097 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

An American intelligence assessment found that the balloon used a commercially available U.S. network to communicate, primarily for navigation, U.S. officials say.

U.S. intelligence officials have determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. this year used an American internet service provider to communicate, according to two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the assessment.

The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.

The Biden administration sought a highly secretive court order from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect intelligence about it while it was over the U.S., according to multiple current and former U.S. officials. How the court ruled has not been disclosed.

top 15 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

NBC News is not naming the provider to protect the identity of its sources.

I think that is the right thing to do.

[–] errer@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It’s so obviously starlink that it’s conspicuous not to name them. Who the fuck else could it be at that elevation?

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I have been on hughesnet. It is so slow that I don't think a burst transmission would be possible.

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

The whole thing is really bizarre.

[–] neptune@dmv.social 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Iridium? I think there are a couple options here.

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

You used to be able to get internet through satellite tv providers like DISH or DirectTV, but I don't know if they would be classified as an ISP or if the satellite network was acting as a repeater or relay.

[–] TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Aren't traditional satellite providers download only via satellite and use phone line for upload?

[–] AnneBonny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

I haven't the faintest idea about that.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Does it really matter who provided the internet? It's not like they would have known China was flying a surveillance balloon over the US with their service?

Like I guess it's good for the DoD to know so they can subpoena some data, but there's no wrong doing here.

If anything if naming it wouldn't harm sources, it'd be good PR for whoever was able to provide service like that.

[–] werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago
[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

Ooooo who is the provider then? They're quoted in the article but not named.

[–] deft@ttrpg.network 2 points 10 months ago

Ooh what if the US tried to seize Elongated Muskrat's toys

[–] PlasmaDistortion@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

It would probably be Verizon or other cellular internet provider.

[–] JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee 1 points 10 months ago

I read that it was able to detect signals but not that it necessarily connected to them.