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Russia was never supposed to have Starlink, so why did SpaceX wait so long to cut it off? (meduza.io)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by mapto@feddit.bg to c/ukraine@sopuli.xyz

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Other than the title being the most meaningful comment in this matter, this article explains the broader context of starlink on the front and possible alternatives.

It doesn't answer the question, possibly because it does not have the evidence to confirm that it's because the Kremlin now can afford some other alternative. Time will tell.

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[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 days ago

There's also the problem of Russia using captured dishes, iirc

[-] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 days ago

And russia probably trying to register their dishes as ukrainian ones or setting up a shop to register and then import them. It's all messy, and may seem heavy-handed and/or short-sighted, but nevertheless free for all Starlink connection was an outlier in an otherwise tight air defence system. Just like having a workplace ban on social media BUT everyone having some braincells to install a VPN visiting them no problem.

Idk how UAF communicates with Starlink and if they react fast, if they share enough information, but the latter has location data of each connected dish, so in the best probable condiditions there is an ability to shut down network services in real time.

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

so in the best probable condiditions there is an ability to shut down network services in real time.

I think you're right about this. Shutting down in real time if they think the dish is compromised should be possible, but whitelisting them requires more overhead to verify authenticity, especially for civilians.

[-] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

The most problematic aspect to this, is that red button is in the hands of Starlink, so Musk, a pretty uncooperative person who wouldn't give it away.

It seems ukrainian defence forces doesn't have many choices there. If the service allows whitelisting select stations (or rather promotes this option), they are pushed to work with it, unless they can demand a better ruleset for themselves.

But as with all fucking whitelisting, there is a problem that an unreliable third party provider has pointers on the map on registered users with their identity glued to it. One ketamine nazi gets a nearly realtime info on ukrainian positions supplied with his company's stations that he or a hacker can leak anytime. And that's an insane vulnerability they are made to put up with.

Wars in the TikTok era are fucking absurd.

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

I am kind of curious what the SpaceX / DoD deal was once the DoD finally took things over back in 2022 or 2023 or whenever it was. Did they just hand off all decision making of what is/isn't allowed, or did they actually hand off some form of control that lets them manage things?

It's possible, but unlikely, that SpaceX is helping with the whitelist, but only the DoD can see it, or at least, only the DoD can see it in the simplistic form all laid out without having to do any extra work.

But given the current government... that doesn't really help in terms of leaks/hacks and the data being considered safe.