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A Starlink terminal used by Ukrainian servicemen in Bakhmut on February 1, 2023.
Getty Images | Yasuyoshi Chiba
"SpaceX took steps to prevent Ukraine's military from using Starlink
satellite Internet with drones because the service was never intended to
be "weaponized," SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said at an
FAA space transportation conference Wednesday.
"Using Starlink with drones went beyond the scope of an
agreement SpaceX has with the Ukrainian government, Shotwell said,
adding that the contract was intended for humanitarian purposes such as
providing broadband Internet to hospitals, banks, and families affected
by Russia's invasion,"Reuters reported
Shotwell said, "We were really pleased to be able to provide Ukraine
connectivity and help them in their fight for freedom. It was never
intended to be weaponized. However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways
that were unintentional and not part of any agreement," according to the Associated Press.
Starlink's terms of service
specifically address this, saying it is "not designed or intended for
use with or in offensive or defensive weaponry or other comparable
end-uses." SpaceX knows "the military is using them for comms, and
that's OK," Shotwell reportedly said. "But our intent was never to have
them use it for offensive purposes."
Shotwell declined to say exactly how SpaceX prevented Ukraine from
using Starlink with drones. "There are things that we can do to limit
their ability to do that... there are things that we can do and have
done," she said, according to Reuters.
Ukraine officials express anger, puzzlement
SpaceX came to Ukraine's aid after Russia invaded the country in
February 2022. Reports in March said Starlink broadband connections
helped the Ukraine military's elite drone unit target and destroy Russian tanks and other "priority targets."
✓ Shotwell's comments expanded on a recent statement by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. In a tweet
on January 31, Musk wrote that "SpaceX Starlink has become the
connectivity backbone of Ukraine all the way up to the front lines...
However, we are not allowing Starlink to be used for long-range drone
strikes." Musk's comment came after a TV host on a Russian
state-controlled channel called Musk "a war criminal."
After Shotwell's comments, a Ukraine official criticized SpaceX for
restricting Starlink's use by the military. Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser
to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote in a tweet
yesterday that companies are either on the side of Ukraine and "the
right to freedom and don't seek ways to do harm" or on the side of
Russia "and its 'right' to kill and seize territories. SpaceX (Starlink)
and Mrs. Shotwell should choose a specific option."
One "Ukrainian military official called Shotwell's statements
'strange' given the well-established fact of the country's use of
Starlink as a combat tool," the AP wrote.
Starlink has been useful to Ukraine in multiple ways, Mykhailo
Fedorov, Ukraine's vice prime minister and minister of digital
transformation, said in a statement quoted by news outlets. There are
"no problems with the operation of Starlink uplink terminals in
Ukraine," and Musk is "one of the biggest private donors of our future
victory," he said.
"Starlinks help save thousands of lives daily," Fedorov also said.
"The energy infrastructure continues to work due to Starlinks. Doctors
perform complex surgeries thanks to the connection that Starlinks
provide."
SpaceX worked to prevent Ukraine from using Starlink internet with drones: report
Mike Wall
4 - 5 minutes
"Starlink has been a vital piece of communications infrastructure for Ukraine throughout the conflict, which began when Russia invaded the nation
on Feb. 24 of last year. Service beamed down from orbit is tougher for
an adversary to knock out than coverage provided by ground-bound towers,
after all.
✓ SpaceX has balked at some Ukrainian uses of Starlink, according to Reuters. Specifically, the outlet reported on Wednesday (opens in new tab) (Feb. 8), Elon Musk's
company doesn't want the Ukrainian military using the service to
control its battlefield drones, which conduct a variety of operations
from scouting to dropping bombs.
Starlink
service was "never, never meant to be weaponized," SpaceX President and
Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said Wednesday during the 25th
annual Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation
Conference in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters.
"However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement," she added.
Control
of battlefield drones is one such verboten application, in SpaceX's
eyes; Shotwell mentioned this use at the conference, Reuters reported,
and it's clear that the company's higher-ups are not okay with it.
"There
are things that we can do to limit their ability to do that," Shotwell
said. "There are things that we can do, and have done."
She didn't provide any details about those measures, Reuters reported. You can read the whole story here (opens in new tab).
Musk
said last fall that there are about 25,000 Starlink terminals in
Ukraine. Deploying and operating all of them has proven challenging,
however, given the logistical and economic hurdles facing the besieged
nation. Last fall, for example, 1,300 Starlink terminals used by the
Ukrainian military went dark for two weeks due to a funding shortfall.
SpaceX
began subsidizing Starlink service in Ukraine just after the invasion
began, a practice that ended up costing the company about $20 million
per month, according to Musk. In September, SpaceX asked the U.S.
military to help defray those costs, according to CNN.
"Negotiations are very much underway. Everyone in our building knows we're going to pay them," a Pentagon official told CNN last fall (opens in new tab).
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There (opens in new tab)" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab)or onFacebook (opens in new tab).
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14 hours ago · SpaceX has come under fire from a Ukrainian official for comments by a company executive who said steps had been taken to curb the Starlink ...
U.S. and U.K. sanction TrickBot and Conti ransomware operation members
Lawrence Abrams
9 - 12 minutes
"The United States and the United Kingdom have sanctioned seven
Russian individuals for their involvement in the TrickBot cybercrime
group, whose malware was used to support attacks by the Conti and Ryuk
ransomware operation.
TrickBot is a cybercrime gang responsible for developing numerous
malware families, such as the eponymous TrickBot malware, BazarBackdoor,
Anchor, and BumbleBee.
The TrickBot malware started as a banking trojan distributed via
phishing emails to steal online bank accounts. It later evolved into
malware designed to provide initial access to corporate networks for the Ryuk/Conti ransomware operation. . ." Read more
A campaign operated by Russian threat actors uses fake job offers to
target Eastern Europeans working in the cryptocurrency industry, aiming
to infect them with a modified version of the Stealerium malware named
'Enigma.'
Indigo Books & Music, the largest bookstore chain in Canada, has
been struck by a cyberattack yesterday, causing the company to make the
website unavailable to customers and to only accept cash payments.
We all need time for personal growth, and managing how we spend it is
one of the most important steps. This lifetime subscription to Headway
gets you started for $59, 80% off the $299 MSRP.
A new phishing campaign targeting Amazon Web Services (AWS) logins is
abusing Google ads to sneak phishing sites into Google Search to steal
your login credentials.
A new threat actor tracked as TA886 targets organizations in the
United States and Germany with new custom malware to perform
surveillance and data theft on infected systems.
If you've been experiencing Tor network connectivity and performance
issues lately, you're not the only one since many others have had issues
with onion sites loading slower or not loading at all.
Multiple medical groups in the Heritage Provider Network in
California have suffered a ransomware attack, exposing sensitive patient
information to cybercriminals.
A new cybersecurity advisory from the U.S. Cybersecurity &
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) describes recently observed
tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) observed with North Korean
ransomware operations against public health and other critical
infrastructure sectors.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced
that ASCON is the winning bid for the "lightweight cryptography" program
to find the best algorithm to protect small IoT (Internet of Things)
devices with limited hardware resources.
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