This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
It's not real war profiteering if you don't sell to both sides, dummy.
Just like the good ol' days after 9/11
Not even the article you didn't read implies SpaceX is selling these to Russia. This tech falls under US sanctions to Russia. Starlink is not enabled there. Hell, it's not even enabled on Crimea as was demonstrated by the failed Ukrainian drone boat assault there.
How dare you insinuate I didn't read the article. I'll have you know I read every bit of the first paragraph. Now, good day sir. harrumph
Is this a surprise?
It's not exactly easy to tell from a satellite if it's a Russian or Ukrainian operator.
I'm confused. Do you think starlink is free to access? You have to have authentication to use it, spacex is allowing russia to use it.
Elon "Daddy Warbucks" Musk.
All he needs is a flying suit.
Of course starlink is allowing paying customers to use it, won't someone think of the shareholders!
I’m curious, how do you think Starlink can tell the difference between a Ukrainian and a Russian?
Are you under the impression that Russia is signing up for service transparently? The devices aren’t sold in Russia, and won’t even work within Russia. Meaning they were likely bought through a proxy using aliases, and set up in Ukraine.
At that point, you cant tell the difference. It’s just data, which can also be easily encrypted and proxied to mask the fact that they are being used for military purposes.
It’s just data, which can also be easily encrypted and proxied to mask the fact that they are being used for military purposes.
It's not though. The data goes both ways. As long as the device id was not altered, its history of movement can be tracked down, provided such a data is being recorded.
Also, there may be caveats about how accounts are getting created and activated. Those devices bought by Russia may come with pre-activated accounts that can be tracked by origin.
Finally, billing. Unless Russia is not relying on stolen Ukrainian credit cards it should be easy to identify that a group of devices/accounts is being paid for by entities that are neither Russian nor Ukrainian.
Based on all of that, they could filter groups of devices by location, confirm it with Ukrainian forces and ban maliciously used ones.
Yeah. Russia crosses many lines but stealing credit cards is NOT one of them /s
Edit: Null User was right. But just the be sure I'll edit in the /s
Russia has operatives worldwide. Just like every other country with any sort of intelligence agency. The idea that they aren’t able to come up with a credit card with a Ukrainian name that looks 100% legitimate to a billing company is farcical.
Let me just ask you point blank, do you think the CIA could manage to purchase a Starlink, activate it, and use it, without anyone having any idea it was the CIA that did all that? Because if so, it’s just as easy for Russia to do it.
Hell, I could likely do it.
This is kinda scary. Sanctions are one thing, but do you really want your internet provider to investigate people and act like an intelligence service for the state?
It's not about what I want. It's about what Starlink can do to make sure their help to Ukrainian army (which is paid by the US department of defense) goes only to Ukrainian army.
Yeah, they put up a prompt when you visit that you confirm you're over 18 and definitely Ukrainian.
Well, Elon Musk is a traitor, bigot and fascist, so this makes sense. I would not be surprised if he is sharing sensitive Ukrainian data with the Russians as Ukrainians also use Starlink.
Can't wait for all of the concerned users to start screaming about ITAR...any second now.
I can see that the supplier has his balls in Russia'a vise grips from that fucking hellsite he "bought"
Musk is an ass, but there's way too many possible explanations and insufficient information to be throwing accusations around right now.
The CIA should definitely be looking into this, though.
Just giving Elon the benefit of a doubt. Perhaps the Russian's might have taken over a region and the equipment was not taken during the evacuation. Who knows if this starlink device is even operational.
