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.
The reason I think is because any unofficial and potentially unsecured communications access point seems like a vulnerability. If some moron posts a picture using that unofficial access point I’d be worried it could be traced to the ship’s location.
It wouldn’t be… Until it is.
No it just wouldn’t.
Like, are you imagining a modern US warship doesn’t have internet 24/7?
This was for porn and maybe streaming services and social media, but mostly porn.
It wasn’t for any official use, because they have that covered.
You’re acting like surface ships are submarines…
Like, are you imagining a modern US warship doesn’t have internet 24/7?
last I checked, no, they don’t. they had shitty service while in port, and not much else.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2023/12/29/new-in-2024-better-wi-fi-for-sailors/
fuck mate they only recently started giving their people access ON SHORE.
https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2024-01-25/navy-free-wi-fi-pilot-program-12796438.html
so no, I don’t think for the average sailor a US warship provides internet access 24/7
That article is about wifi for personal use…
And the second one is about it being free and you’re acting like they didn’t have Internet before then?
so no, I don’t think for the average sailor a US warship provides internet access 24/7
Yeah man, you have zero idea what people are talking about about.
That article is about wifi for personal use…
do you think the starlink terminal in the OP article was for military use?? bwahahaha
Yeah man, you have zero idea what people are talking about about.
ok buddy, have a nice life.
I said:
This was for porn and maybe streaming services and social media, but mostly porn.
And on your second reply you said:
do you think the starlink terminal in the OP article was for military use?? bwahahaha
I stand by my original assessment after your first comment:
Yeah man, you have zero idea what people are talking about
Because you literally don’t understand the conversation
Whether they have wifi on ship or not isn’t the issue. Sometimes, when a ship goes into an operation, they will turn off all signals except passive or directed signals so that they can’t easily be detected. Having a communications signal that isn’t under the control of the ship’s officers is a huge security risk during operations.
Someone is going to be court martialed over this.
It was exactly the reason I was thinking
I feel like every military is full of technological babies acting out security theatre with each other while everything is totally hacked.
And I’m sure whoever put it there faced way more harsher penalties than a certain someone who willfully hid highly classified documents in his bathroom for months and lied about it to investigators.
According to Navy Times, reduction in rank. According to my experience, likely going to be told they can’t re-enlist after the end of their current term. Likely shipped stateside and in charge of mowing the lawn somewhere.
What’s better is that, thanks to Elon Musk, “STINKY” is the default name for its Starlink wifi. These people didn’t even change that.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-starlink-wifi-stinky
Don’t worry! I’m sure the default username and password didn’t get changed either.
They did, because they were charging people for access to it.
He’s so weirdly childish.
He’s so weird
ly childish.
To make matters even worse…
The chiefs found that the Wi-Fi signal coming off the Starlink satellite transceiver couldn’t cover the entire ship, so during a stop in Pearl Harbor, they bought “signal repeaters and cable” to extend coverage.
This many chiefs (not rank-and-file, chiefs), putting this much effort into breaking Navy protocol, together, is crazy. And for what? Memes?
I know deployment at sea can be boring but Jesus fucking Christ, read a damn book or something.
Dude isn’t American. More money than a sovereign nation. Space level ballistic capabilities. Openly aligned with our enemies and their values.
How the fuck does he have a penny of my federal fucking tax dollars? We’re funding fucking terrorists that don’t even need the subsidies.
deleted by creator
Read the article
What? Why is my comment invalid in the context.
No it isn’t because Elon Musk has nothing to do with this receiver so having to go at him for this is stupid.
What dude are you referring to? I’m confused how your comment relates to the article.
Lemmy, where you get downvoted for being confused and asking for clarification. Good job everyone.
It’s baffling how people on Lemmy hate Musk so much and yet can’t stop mentioning him in every random, unrelated thread.
The starlink was privately bought as per the article, it wasn’t officially procured using federal funds. So the comment I responded to doesn’t really make any sense in the context of this post.
But it gets 50 upvotes because Musk is very bad man. I guess that answers my own question about why people can’t stop mentioning him on Lemmy: it’s free upvotes to shit on him. That’s fine I guess, but it can be annoying when it clogs up the discussion in unrelated threads.
you rage against people like musk because he is an evil person with a lot of power who gladly uses that power to push bad shit.
I mean, I guess we could do the whole not speak about bad people bit, but then we end up back at praising literal Nazi collaborators caugh caugh ford
Rage against him when he does evil things, by all means. But when you start raging against him 24/7 for no particular reason, it serves no purpose. In fact, it lessens your ability to actually call him out when he does bad stuff, because you sound like the boy who cried wolf.
And more importantly, it also affects the quality of discussion on Lemmy. One major advantage we have over reddit is that people tend to actually read the articles and make insightful comments that add to the discussion. “Hurr Durr Muskrat bad” is the opposite of that, it’s a reddit style pandering comment that ultimately has no substance or meaning. When these circlejerky comments become more common than good comments, the value of this site as a forum for legitimate discussion falls off a cliff.
You still feel like we should lay off?
Rage against him when he does evil things
that is 24/7 tho
Here’s the meat and potatoes of the article.
In 2023, they decided that the best way to deal with the problem was to secretly bolt a Starlink terminal to the “O-5 level weatherdeck” of a US warship.
They called the resulting Wi-Fi network “STINKY”—and when officers on the ship heard rumors and began asking questions, the leader of the scheme brazenly lied about it. Then, when exposed, she went so far as to make up fake Starlink usage reports suggesting that the system had only been accessed while in port, where cybersecurity and espionage concerns were lower.
Rather unsurprisingly, the story ends badly, with a full-on Navy investigation and court-martial.
when officers on the ship heard rumors
Lol not only is this an incredible violation of security, they couldn’t even keep their fucking mouths shut about it.
average starlink user, worse than arch users
What really surprises me is that the ships equipment never picked up on those unauthorized signals. Hell they can pick up pavarotti in pearl harbour on their sonar. (Red oktober reference) . but they cant pick up multiple unknown signals in the 2.4 and 5 GHz band
Command Senior Chief
The person who came up with the scheme is also the most senior NCO on the ship. All the enlisted people in charge of monitoring that activity knew, they just knew not to ask questions.You would be surprised how much pull an E-8 or E-9 has in the military.
Can confirm was an O-3 to O-5 and if an E-5 or above was talking, I shut up and listened. Those guys get shit done.
Yeah, my dad eventually found himself as an E-9 in the USAF. He spent the latter portion of his career, which was jet engine mechanic, originally, going to different NATO countries and training people on equipment they were buying from the US, consulting them on opening, and operating, engine rooms, and hangars, and implementation of these roles in bases on foreign land, and in FOB situations. He said it was hard not to suffer imposter syndrome when you are routinely in board rooms filled with top brass, from around the world, and they are listening TO YOU. It stressed him out, a lot.
Believe me, being an officer from the ages of 20-24 there was a fuckton of imposter syndrome. I’m still shocked that they gave me the job they did. The stress was one of the reasons I left.
Yeah, same with my dad. Since he had enlisted he had gotten a masters, so they wanted to make him an officer, starting at some decent rank. However they wanted him to continue on with the types of locations he was being stationed at. He did a lot of work on test, and spy, aircraft, and did all that consulting travel. So they kept putting him in basically the middle of nowhere, but locations that either had a lot of traffic for things like spy aircraft, or they were geographically kinda centered, to travel between a number of locations, to work at, with that place being home base. He said he would do it if they sent him back to Vegas, or put him in Hawaii, or Edwards in southern California, or one of the major spots in Virginia, something other than arctic outposts, and a super rural areas. At the time we were stationed at Mountain Home AFB in Idaho… He hated it. But no, they wanted him to stay there for a few years, then get moved a rather remote location in the midwest. So he retired after 22 years.
And this situation shows an inherent weakness of a military culture which demands one pretend a dumbass isn’t a dumbass just because of their badge collection.
That movie is not very realistic.
Are you telling me that some things do react well to bullets?
It’s a very subjective question. Arguably some people do. That’s why we make bullets and the devices for sending them.
Wow just wow. Mind is blown. If thats your response you probably have no idea what my point was
the ship’s* equipment
i was wondering why would you choose such a stupid WiFi access point name, then I read that it was Elon musk that decided that the default starlink AP name has to be that stupid so people would change it
can we just fucking all take a break for a month? just have things go to being boring?
I attended a fucking ethics of ai talk at my work, only to run into a fucking knockoff nazi complaining about the founding fathers images being generated with black people, and talking about how silicon valley is too left wing.
either you’re so stupid that you don’t understand it’s a fucking alt-right dog whistle, or you’re a fucking nazi who gets very, very upset if you see a black person in any context. Either way, just shut the fuck up.
The fact that they didn’t even try to hide their ssid (or at least, the report doesn’t say they did) shows how stupid people can be with cybersecurity.
To be fair, this is a navy ship. If they got the sniffers out and found a hidden one then the officers would be tearing the ship apart to find it right then and there. Hiding in plain view was the better choice.
To be mean, because these chiefs deserve it, Stinky is apparently the default name. These fucking geniuses left the default name up rather than try to camouflage it as a legitimate network. So I’m pretty sure none of the top part went through their smooth brains. They just assumed it would go unnoticed. Then they assumed they had enough privilege to make the enlisted think this was proper. Forgetting just how pugnacious the middle enlisted can be when they feel something is both unfair and know it’s against regs. (They will make it their life’s mission to humble a leader, and they win more often than not)
If I was in a warship, I’d want TikTok too.
You can take your porn collection on a few USB sticks. And games. And movies. And books. And music.
Some McHale’s Navy shit only with actual consequences.
The Rosenbergs died for less.
Heads should roll.
