Mastodawn

fejes Sep 15, 2023

Good, #Musk is one of America's greatest national security threats:

The Senate Armed Services Committee is probing national-security issues raised by Elon Musk’s decision not to extend the private Starlink satellite network to aid a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships near the Crimean coast.

Chairman Jack Reed said in a statement Thursday the reports on the use of Starlink exposed “serious national-security liability issues & the committee is engaged on this issue.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-14/elon-musk-s-denial-of-ukraine-s-starlink-request-prompts-senate-query?sref=fjrBr5qu#xj4y7vzkg

Elon Musk Denial of Ukraine’s Starlink Request Prompts Senate Probe

The Senate Armed Services Committee is looking into national security issues raised by Elon Musk’s decision not to extend the private Starlink satellite network to aid a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships near the Crimean coast.

Bloomberg

Kim Perales Sep 15, 2023

Senate Dems are demanding that the Pentagon turn over information about Elon Musk's Starlink contracts with the US military, to investigate whether there're safeguards in them to prevent another version of Musk's recent fiasco. They're demanding a full accounting of whether contracts like Starlink's safeguard against the provider making unilateral decisions to suspend service, as #Musk apparently did. They also demand details on the Musk/#Ukraine incident.
-Greg Sargent

https://www.shaheen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/secdef_starlink_letter.pdf

Andreas K Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales Shrug,
seriously?

A contract is supposed to keep a potential foreign asset who happens to be a billionaire, thus is by tradition mostly immune from law enforcement, from: “oops, sorry, somebody tripped over the power cable in the control centre, while the US attack mission relying on our Starlink network went in.”

In the good tradition of SLAs:
We'll pay back the 50% of the usage fees for the 24h hours when we didn't offer the 99.99% uptime. Thank you for choosing Starlink.

Andreas K Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales
I cannot understand that blind belief that lawyers (most Congress members are lawyers, aren't they?) have in contracts to shape reality against the forces of nature.

Security by contract is so cool. Till someone decides that he isn't concerned about the legal consequences. These people are so seldom, that we do n̶o̶t̶ ̶ even have a word for them: criminals.

And as the initial question was about the military: Hint. State actors from country B are often acting “criminal” in country A.

Andreas K Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales And if somebody has problems translating it, what I like to call "security by contract" is the so popular practice of outsourcing security relevant functions.

Example: my employer standardized on a certain password manager. Great product, and as during the training session, the lady didn't even tell too many wrong things about security in general. And they are really proud about their architecture, where they never ever see unencrypted data on their servers.

Andreas K Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales It all gets encrypted on the customers' devices.

Let's stipulate they designed their crypto perfectly.

In a perfect world, we are all happy, right. My company improves its security, that provider sells its password management service. And all is covered by a nice service contract.

But that company collects Fortune 500 customers like a fat corpse collects flies.

So month by month, they become a more interesting potential victim, even for state—level actors.

Andreas K Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales So where's the weakness?

I mean the passwords are not really stored on the servers of password.com, right, only encrypted trash.

Sigh.

We run everywhere software provided by password.com to manage that binary junk to autofill our forms. In our browsers, on our mobiles, on the desktop, …

So if one of these packages gets corrupted, …

How many of that Fortune 500 customers review the source code of these critical pieces of code they run on all their devices?

Andreas K Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales Ah, right, it's not possible it's commercial software.

But you have your cool contract.

Which will worth very much in bankruptcy court, should a really bad actor (say an intelligence agency from a country that does not use a latin character set), sponsor 2 software developers to get themselves hired with password.com. To "improve" their client software.

Arena Cops 🇺🇦✌Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales Considering what Musk pulled against Ukraine he may not be seen as the most reliable & mentally stable contractor within Pentagon circles.

#NationalSecurity #NationalDefense #USMilitary #Pentagon #StarLink #MuskSuX #PutinsWar #WarOfAggression #StandWithUkraine

parislady1492 Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales I totally agree with these Senators demand for accountability for Elon Musks actions re Starlight disabling activity re Ukraine.

MediaBaron Sep 14, 2023

@KimPerales @GottaLaff Doesn’t want to piss off Putin? It can’t be that he doesn’t want Starlink for military use as he has no problem taking Pentagon money for spy satellite launches.

Darrin West Sep 14, 2023

@KimPerales @GottaLaff @MediaBaron He took US govt money for StarLink *in Ukraine*, already. So this would be breach of contract…w the US Government. Maybe we should reconsider all that NASA money going to them, too. https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/spacex-ukraine-elon-musk-starlink-government-b2055491.html

SpaceX was paid by US government to send some Starlink terminals to Ukraine despite claiming it wasn’t

The US federal government purchased more than 1,330 terminals from SpaceX to send to Ukraine at a cost of $3 million

The Independent

Humble Fan of Atty. Woo Sep 14, 2023

great news. he's a putz who wants to play both sides of the fence to benefit himself only. He is kowtowing to Putin and Xi and we should cut him the hell off! His citizenship should be a risk.

Mastodon Migration Sep 14, 2023

@KimPerales Hope they are also looking at the national security threat that is represented by thousands of satellites under his control in low earth orbit. If he were to accidentally or intentionally kick off a Kessler Syndrome catastrophe he could destroy all spacecraft including the ISS in low earth orbit and close off space to humanity for decades. This is too much power and responsibility for anyone, let alone a lunatic like Elon Musk.

#Musk #KesslerSyndrome #Risk

asunaspersonalasst Sep 14, 2023

I hope the finding out phase hits Melon Husk hard.

Dani 🍁Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales It’s about time. He gets away with so much.

StarkRG Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales I can't believe the blatantly false "didn't extend" narrative actually took hold. He turned it off.

Sane Thinker Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales All billionaires are security threats. They are also responsible for global poverty. They control everything and are consolidating their power.

SFborn1940 Sep 16, 2023

@gdeihl "And thus the seeds of revolution are sown."

Sane Thinker Sep 16, 2023

@trainman The Starlink thing is serious. That a private citizen can wield that kind of power is frightening. It's like a James Bond villain becoming real. I find the whole billionaire space race appalling, but I suppose predictable, a never ending search for the next conquest akin to wooden ships subduing the globe when that was the height of technology.

SFborn1940 Sep 16, 2023

@gdeihl I don't think we really are private citizens anymore.
Almost all of our behavior and choices are tracked and recorded somewhere.
Starlink is the ultimate control when it can be used to alter events on the ground by one person.
This is indeed a James Bond villain at work.

Sane Thinker Sep 16, 2023

@trainman There is no privacy or autonomy now. Hell, they can turn your car off if you miss a payment now.

CDunn Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales
FAA & FCC should pull his launch approval until it is clear that the launches are in the national interest

Doug Baker - Elbows Up! 🇨🇦Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales Wouldn’t it be amazing if the US nationalized and took over #Starlink? Damned sure there’s legislation to allow it.

ex or current IDF unwelcome Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales There is an alternative OneWeb. More satellites but higher. And the UK Government has shares in it. Starlink is not a monopoly

)}]Sep 15, 2023

@JohnLoader6 @KimPerales
There's a broadband service from SES (formerly known as ASTRA), also in a higher orbit.
SES operates a lot of broadcast TV/radio satellites. Their most recent launches were with SpaceX, but they have also used Arianespace.

wauz Sep 15, 2023

@KimPerales
No. SpaceX is a private Company, and by no means part of the US defence system. After all, the use of the Starlink system wasn't intended by any mean to defend the USA.

enmodo ⚛️ 🧬 🇺🇦 🍉Sep 19, 2023

@KimPerales so he moved to Texas because he didn't like the taxes in California. Will he now move to Russia or China because he doesn't like being labeled a security risk? Then again working in Russia or China he'd learn a whole new level of shitfuckery in terms of government intervention and control.

At this point I'm surprised nubiphile Musk doesn't just buy a small island nation somewhere in Asia and bugger off there.