• resetbypeer@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    As much as I hate Elon for all the shit he says and does, but it also shows the sanctioning for stuff like this is not waterproof. These units can be bought by company X in country X and sells it to company Y in country Y who is friendly with Russia. Also depending where they get launched from (for example from occupied Ukraine) it makes it also difficult to tell “friend” from “foe”. Can that be prevented ? Probably, but it’s not as straightforward as armchair generals may make it sound.

    Now, could spaceX do something more about this ? Most likely. But that is resources you need to put on this, which is not profitable. So long story short. It’s more than Elon bad here.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      They could probably prevent 99.999% of this with a list of starlink devices in ukraine, a list devices geolocated to the vicinity, and a single part time employee.

  • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    But Moscow has ways of avoiding bans – as does Iran – and could have found a way to build Starlink-equipped kit that only becomes active once it crosses the border into Ukraine where SpaceX’s service is allowed.

  • Hegar@fedia.io
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    9 hours ago

    Didnt we already know that elon opened starlink to the russians? I thought he announced after that call with putin?

      • Dayroom7485@lemmy.world
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        2 hours ago

        They’re clearly not all on the same team. Some are decent human being that choose to use their money for the betterment of humankind.

        It’s just that a couple, e.g. Musk, Thiel, David Sachs and others, decided to be huge assholes. They would end democracy any day to become richer and more powerful.

        • Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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          2 hours ago

          I legitimately don’t know any of those good hearted oligarchs, who would you say they are ?

    • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      It’s one thing to be a capitalistic shitbag, it’s another to be a traitor. Governments like capitalistic shitbags

        • Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 hours ago

          Shouldn’t they be capable of detecting where the connection is going and disconnect/block it for specific regions or something? I have no clue how any of that stuff works but this one thing feels like it should be the case.

          • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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            11 hours ago

            They do, but Ukraine uses Starlink, so they can’t really disable usage entirely in the contested areas. They could disable the individual terminals, but that would require knowing which ones the Russians were using in the first place.

            • takeda@lemmy.world
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              10 hours ago

              Well, given that they have access to Internet via starlink, all they would have to do is set up a website and list the IDs, then block everything that’s not there.

              They got me shipment? Add them to the list? No longer own the device? Remove it.

              • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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                10 hours ago

                The problem is that not all of those terminals are being purchased by Ukraine, or supplied through official channels. There are tons of equipment being donated from third parties not directly affiliated, including Starlink terminals.

                That’s great if the Ukraine military were the only users in the region, but they aren’t. Regular Starlink service is available in the country, outside military use. Even though the Ukraine military is using it, Starlink is not designed to be a military network. It is a civilian network that just happens to be available and extremely useful in this case, even with the Russian attempts to interfere with signals in the region.

          • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de
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            11 hours ago

            The Starlink probably only works once the drone enters Ukraine. Disabling Starlink in that area would cut off the Ukrainian military too. The internet traffic could easily be routed through a VPN in another country, so blocking Russian IP addresses on Starlink wouldn’t work either.

            • IllNess@infosec.pub
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              11 hours ago

              If Starlink is the internet provider, aren’t they providing the IP address? If they are how would a VPN trick Starlink since the equipment has to connect to Starlink first?

            • Martineski@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              11 hours ago

              Whitelist/allowlist for this region comes to my mind. But probably some other specific problems would arise from this too. Hmm…

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Isn’t that a massive security risk?

    Like, what if the U.S was using Roscosmos satellite links in drones? I’d certainly be raising an eyebrow.

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      1 hour ago

      Yeah, sure, if it was an adversary like the U.S. government and not a Russian ally like Elon Musk…

    • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Yeah, but it’s not a government satellite system, it’s an independent Internet provider. It is always possible that the US government/military has access on the back end, but that’s not guaranteed. And since Ukraine is using Starlink, they can’t exactly just disable all access in the region.

      Kind of makes sense for Russia to try and use Starlink at least a bit to test the waters and see what sort of Intel the US has access to directly through it.

          • Dioxid3@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            Don me a tinfoil hat, but I think it is absolutely within the realm of possible that half my networked electronics has a backdoor to one or another governmentsl agency. Or that my ”encrypted” WhatsApp conversations are available to US officials if need be.

            Luckily I am as interesting as a slice of bread gone stale

            • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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              4 hours ago

              Oh I’m sure that’s the case for nearly all large social media and network systems based on the US. I’m also willing to bet that for some of these companies, almost no one even knows it’s there, either because a 3 letter agency put it there themselves without being noticed, or an employee implemented it for them without corporate approval.

              The US is worried about other countries doing this because we 100% are doing it ourselves. From a national security perspective, it’s basically common sense. Ensure you have access to everything, even if you don’t use it now, you might in the future and it will save time.

  • rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    11 hours ago

    If the item is indeed Starlink hardware, it should be possible to prove its origins – perhaps even where it was bought, and by whom.

    sheeeeeeeeeeeit. Starlink isn’t going to say shit, maybe someone else controls the database of serial numbers?

    Has Tesla even identified that TX CyberFuck that killed it’s unidentified (?) driver in early August? I can’t find any followup on that, except that the wreck was going to be auctioned at the end of August. It’s the one truck that has gone dark in all of TX that month… easy to figure it out on Tesla’s end.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Remember they fired their corporate communications and even municipalities mid-project can’t get anyone on the phone. It’s burning down.

      That said, I would not be shocked at all to find Elmo with his fascist oligarch mitts on this. That fucker needs a serious regulatory beatdown. (Not an actual, like, punching him in the head beatdown.)

      • WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works
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        2 hours ago

        so they are basically saying “nanana, I can’t here you! you can’t oblige me to do anything!”, and getting away with it?

      • zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        (Not an actual, like, punching him in the head beatdown.)

        Look, let’s not be picky here