• wildncrazyguy@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      I mean, I’m not a Musk fan in the least, but the article does say that the receivers are being sold through an intermediary in Dubai, perhaps unbeknownst to Musk and SpaceX.

      • bisby@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Because of how starlink works, they have to aim satellites specifically at areas for data to flow. They have the ability to turn regions on and off (ie, satellites over China).

        They know exactly where the transceivers are and based on movement patterns, probably which side they are on.

        Unless he is feeding that position data to the Ukrainian military, he knows exactly who is using them and letting it happen. He didnt sell them the dishes, but he lets them be used.

        • takeda@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Are you saying there is no authentication whatsoever to use it and anyone with the receiver in Ukraine can just use it?

          • creesco@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I don’t have starlink nor used it, but if it’s anything like other commercial sat internet providers, you register your modem’s MAC address or other identifier with the satellite operator and that basically enables you for transmission. It could be that these modems were already authorized for transmission before resale to Russia. You can buy starlink modems in big box stores now so I’m sure the transmission process is automated as well.

            • NotMyOldRedditName@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              That is what’s happening.

              SpaceX knows which satellites were sold to the Ukrainian government though and could apply additional filtering. That’s the easiest first step.

              To prevent Ukrainian dishes from falling into Russian hands you’d also need some sort of rolling authentication code so the dish becomes inoperable after a period of time.

              Simply being in Russian territory doesn’t guarantee a Russian is using it as it could be Ukrainian special forces deep in enemy territory.

        • PowerCrazy
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          9 months ago

          It’s very important that only “good” Corporations allow only “good” people to use their products.

        • this_1_is_mine@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          How are you telling the absolute definite difference between who’s using which transceiver in that area and which ones should you turn on or off?

      • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
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        9 months ago

        The United States.

        Of course, you could also argue that Musk is a traitor to all rational creatures everywhere, and that his existence is an act of blasphemy against all that is good and moral in the world, but that’s a separate issue.

        • krolden
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          9 months ago

          He’s not an elected official and AFAIK doing business with Russia would be a sanctions violation which does not equate treason.

          He’s just doing what the system allows for rich assholes to do.

          • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
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            9 months ago

            By definition, a citizen is guilty of treason when he gives succor (aid and comfort) to his nation’s enemies. Musk gives a lot of succor to America’s enemies, he succors them real hard, if you know what I mean.

            Edit: Brace yourselves everyone, the Putin/Musk apologetics have begun.

            • PowerCrazy
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              9 months ago

              Yikes. What defines an “enemy” of america? Is it just whatever the government says? Has the US always been at war with Eurasia?

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Ukrainian soldiers say Russia’s military have begun using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite communications network in Ukraine, according to a journalist in the country.

    “They began to deliver Starlink en masse, via Dubai, accounts are activated, they work in the occupied territories,” one of the soldiers with the X handle @Serhij wrote, referring to the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by Russia in the fall of 2022—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

    Musk’s SpaceX deployed its Starlink satellites to help provide Kyiv with internet service in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    A source in the satellite communications market, familiar with the situation, told ComNews that Starlink systems are being delivered in bulk to Russia, and named Dubai as the location for the wholesale purchase of the equipment.

    “Before being imported into Russia, terminals are registered under various foreign companies (Cyprus is often included), after which an account is activated under any name, often a fictitious one,” the source said.

    Musk previously refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink internet services to launch an attack on Crimea to avoid complicity in a “major act of war.”


    The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 190 words. Saved 72%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • davelA
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    9 months ago

    I don’t think Musk is the rogue element people think he is. I think he’s as integral a part of the US military-industrial complex as any other US tech billionaire, no different from say Peter Thiel or Eric Schmidt.

      • davelA
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        9 months ago

        I presume that by them you mean the Russian state. This sounds like BlueAnonsense.

        Have you considered that the NSA likely has full access to everything that happens on Starlink?

        • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They do not. At best, they have the metadata which would let them ID the location of anyone using it, but that is a whole different thing to view the traffic.

          The ability to communicate over vast distances is WAY too big of a boon to give to russia… Encryption and ciphers can be added ontop of the connection. Ever heard of a VPN…?

          Russia cannot be given StarLink.

          • d-RLY?@lemmygrad.ml
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            9 months ago

            I highly doubt the US intelligence agencies aren’t tapping StarLink. We already know for a fact that they were/are tapping Google and other carriers (if they didn’t already have actual backdoors made for them by the companies). We also know that the intelligence agencies also like to either flip employees or simply have their own people get jobs there and get access. Being honest, for all the bans on using Chinese equipment/devices for fear of spying (even when other governments were already analyzing and finding nothing). I don’t see why any other nation shouldn’t be doing the same for US stuff on their infrastructure/networks.

            We are historically not very trustworthy, and have been basically one of the top nations for getting into shit that wasn’t even made by us (along with Israel) like the Stuxnet attack. We accuse other nations of shit while damn sure doing it ourselves, like a cheater that then constantly accuses the other partner of cheating.

            Obviously any nation trying to use something like StarLink would be foolish to not use any and all methods for encrypting all traffic.

            • cooljacob204@kbin.social
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              9 months ago

              They can tap all they want. His post is saying that due to encryption it doesn’t matter.

              I just hope they feed the gps coords of Russians using it to Ukraine.

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              You think that was my claim? Moron.

              Why can the NSA do that? Do you know how it works? Because I do. Do you think StarLink traffic would be routed rhrough US-controlled servers to reach Russia? Do you think they can instantly decrypt VPN traffic and not the routing data?

              Again, you are assuming everything and know nothing. You are basically (again BASICALLY) claiming a VPN is useless because DNS is insecure … which is true in the sense that DNS still exposes what you are looking at or communicating with generally, but in reference to compromising traffic, it is utterly and completely WRONG.

              Even if the NSA targets them. Even if the NSA can crack custom applied encryption that A WORLD POWER would ABSOLUTELY DO, they aren’t cracking it instantly. Even if it were just a few minutes, a few minutes can make a world of difference on the battle field. That’s the difference between a supposedly secret meeting of officers getting blown up, or evacuated before the cruise missile hits.

              • krolden
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                9 months ago

                You think that was my claim? Moron.

                Namecalling makes you look like the moron.

                Why can the NSA do that? Do you know how it works? Because I do. Do you think StarLink traffic would be routed rhrough US-controlled servers to reach Russia? Do you think they can instantly decrypt VPN traffic and not the routing data?

                https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/12/glenn-greenwald-nsa-tampers-us-internet-routers-snowden

                Again, you are assuming everything and know nothing. You are basically (again BASICALLY) claiming a VPN is useless because DNS is insecure … which is true in the sense that DNS still exposes what you are looking at or communicating with generally, but in reference to compromising traffic, it is utterly and completely WRONG.

                What the hell does DNS have to do with anything I said?

                Even if the NSA targets them. Even if the NSA can crack custom applied encryption that A WORLD POWER would ABSOLUTELY DO, they aren’t cracking it instantly.

                NO shit. They’re doing blanket collection and cracking what is pertinent. My point is no matter what you do to stay anonymous and secure online, they can always track it back to you. That’s enough reason for them to plant evidence or just bag you and make something up later. Therefor encryption is inherently useless when the government can violate the rights it pretends to be protecting.

          • PowerCrazy
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            9 months ago

            Do you think Russia doesn’t have the internet or something? Do Russians not have cell-phones? What do you think Starlink actually is?

            • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Do you? You seem to fail to realize what a data link is and that different data can be stuffed in to the generic parts, you fucking numpty.

              Do you think StarLink cannot send generic data? Do you think it inspects everything it sends to make sure it’s not encrypted? Or does it just route and send the data. You have no fucking clue what you’re even trying to retort.

              • PowerCrazy
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                9 months ago

                Russia already has the ability to do everything Starlink provides, the difference is it is a bit more convenient. So saying something like this:

                Russia cannot be given StarLink.

                Is weird and acting like Starlink is some kind of cold-war superweapon that we have to keep from Russia makes no sense.

                • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  No, it makes perfect sense to say, “someone gaining billions over here should not be allowed to profit from helping the enemy.”

                  Why is the concept of treason so fucking hard for people to understand?! “You mad someone’s helping a horrible person doing horrible things?” … YES!!! Why the FUCK aren’t you?!