An unauthorized Starlink satellite was secretly installed on a US Navy ship that deployed to the West Pacific in April of 2023.
"Today's Navy sailors are likely familiar with the jarring loss of internet connectivity that can come with a ship's deployment."
"For a variety of reasons, including operational security, a crew's internet access is regularly restricted while underway, to preserve bandwidth for the mission and to keep their ship safe from nefarious online attacks."
"But the senior enlisted leaders among the littoral combat ship Manchester's gold crew knew no such privation last year, when they installed and secretly used their very own Wi-Fi network during a deployment, according to a scathing internal investigation obtained by Navy Times."
"While rank-and-file sailors lived without the level of internet connectivity they enjoyed ashore, the chiefs installed a Starlink satellite internet dish on the top of the ship and used a Wi-Fi network they dubbed 'STINKY' to check sports scores, text home, and stream movies."
"Then-Command Senior Chief Grisel Marrero was relieved in late 2023 after repeatedly misleading and lying to her ship's command about the Wi-Fi network, and she was convicted at court-martial this spring in connection to the scheme."
For me this was an unexpected cybersecurity vulnerability. But the obvious solution is to make Starlink standard with its own separate network and the ability for the higher-ups to shut it off when they're in hostile territory or otherwise feel like it poses a security risk. Or so it seems to me.
How Navy chiefs conspired to get themselves illegal warship Wi-Fi
