this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Kyiv and Washington face difficulties solving the problem of Russian use of Starlink, analysts have said, especially ... the technical challenge of denying access to the Starlink network without affecting Ukrainian troops.
SpaceX ... said it deactivates terminals if used “by a sanctioned or unauthorized party.”

Not that I like Musk, but, this really seems like a tough case of whack-a-mole rather than Starlink deliberately helping Russia or looking the other way. Also,

Interrupting the software update process and tweaking GPS settings can get it working in Russia, said a Ukrainian drone pilot operating there.

So even using a whitelist of IDs may not be enough if the Russians are good enough to register a terminal in the EU and then forge the GPS to make it look like the terminal is still somewhere in the EU.

Basically it seems like Starlink is trying to cooperate but it's just not a simple fix.

To activate a device, users need a foreign phone number, email and bank account to pay the monthly subscription fee, prompting suppliers to seek out people willing to lend their identities. Users in “client support” Telegram chats say it is easy to buy and register Starlink kits abroad. Most are obtained in Europe and transported through the United Arab Emirates. One page warns not to activate the terminal in Russia.

Wow, they are really going quite a long way to avoid detection!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Turn them all off except the ones explicitly tied to Ukraine military and government.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago

They're forging the GPS to look like it's in the EU. Do we turn off all the EU terminals too?

I'm a little surprised they can't identify spoofing by comparing the incoming signal to the proposed location. They already have antennas that can be steered using the phased array.