The source story is worth a read.
Marrero’s background is in Navy intelligence, and she earned a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in information security and digital management
Incredible.
she soon changed the “STINKY” Wi-Fi network name to another moniker that looked like a wireless printer — even though no such general-use wireless printers were present on the ship
Why not just switch off broadcasting the SSID?
[The CO and XO] then conducted another sweep inside the ship. Although the network that appeared to be a wireless printer appeared on their personal devices during their search, neither made additional inquiries regarding that network
No-one’s coming out of this looking good.
Marrero’s secret Starlink dish was removed the same day, and Marrero told another unidentified crew member the next day that it was authorized for in-port use — prompting sailors to re-install the illegal Starlink.
It just keeps going!
To be fair, if the lead NCO of a unit is just going to flat out lie then a lot of people are going to believe it. I can’t imagine being a lower NCO or enlisted and thinking command actually authorized the chiefs to break operational security for entertainment, but only them. Every chief in that crew should be busted and flagged against promotion again. The investigation was completely right to say if they didn’t know, they should have.
I may have missed it in this article, though I believe I read elsewhere, that she got busted down one rank and that’s it. I know military in general is having retention and recruitment issues, but to me this is more than just a busting down offense. That the senior enlisted on a ship would so nonchalantly disregard OPSEC demonstrates either a clear lack of understanding, or worse, something more nefarious.
We saw a naval officer relieved of command for having the scope backwards on his rifle. This, to me, rises to a much higher level.
We saw a naval officer relieved of command for having the scope backwards on his rifle.
Well in that case, it was just a matter of bad optics.
That seems like a significant security risk
Probably not for the reason you think.
Like, it wouldn’t be patched into anything official
But it means Musk knew where that ship was 24/7, and I’m pretty sure that’s why Ukraine’s military stopped using it. Musk tipped off Putin to troop movements.
Everybody knew were the ship was, because at that time star link usage by area was shown publicly. There was map online that showed all clients online.
The reason I think is because any unofficial and potentially unsecured communications access point seems like a vulnerability. If some moron posts a picture using that unofficial access point I’d be worried it could be traced to the ship’s location.
It’s emmitting radio signals that an enemy could use to help locate the ship.
What?
Surface ships are in constant communication with stuff…
You can’t just find a signal in the middle of the ocean. Musk can find a starlink signal tho, because he can see what Starlink connects to and it’s gps location.
Yeah but if they go on mission and “go dark” then you still have this starlink thing that may or may not be disabled by the person smuggling it on board. It may also be connected to official things if the owner has bad intentions, or if someone else who does finds it and co-opts it.
There is a lot that could go wrong with unauthorized radio transmission equipment on a warship, and not all of it is obvious.
Ships absolutely practice turning everything off.
You can’t just find a signal in the middle of the ocean.
Uh, this was the primary way the Allies defeated the U-Boats in WWII.
You say that like Elon is personally looking at that information.
Presumably, there would be a large number of people at the company with access to that information, all of whom could be bribed or otherwise persuaded to share it.
It wouldn’t be… Until it is.
No it just wouldn’t.
Like, are you imagining a modern US warship doesn’t have internet 24/7?
This was for porn and maybe streaming services and social media, but mostly porn.
It wasn’t for any official use, because they have that covered.
You’re acting like surface ships are submarines…
Whether they have wifi on ship or not isn’t the issue. Sometimes, when a ship goes into an operation, they will turn off all signals except passive or directed signals so that they can’t easily be detected. Having a communications signal that isn’t under the control of the ship’s officers is a huge security risk during operations.
Someone is going to be court martialed over this.
Like, are you imagining a modern US warship doesn’t have internet 24/7?
last I checked, no, they don’t. they had shitty service while in port, and not much else.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2023/12/29/new-in-2024-better-wi-fi-for-sailors/
fuck mate they only recently started giving their people access ON SHORE.
https://www.stripes.com/branches/navy/2024-01-25/navy-free-wi-fi-pilot-program-12796438.html
so no, I don’t think for the average sailor a US warship provides internet access 24/7
That article is about wifi for personal use…
And the second one is about it being free and you’re acting like they didn’t have Internet before then?
so no, I don’t think for the average sailor a US warship provides internet access 24/7
Yeah man, you have zero idea what people are talking about about.
That article is about wifi for personal use…
do you think the starlink terminal in the OP article was for military use?? bwahahaha
Yeah man, you have zero idea what people are talking about about.
ok buddy, have a nice life.
What’s better is that, thanks to Elon Musk, “STINKY” is the default name for its Starlink wifi. These people didn’t even change that.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-starlink-wifi-stinky
Can’t speak to starlink specifically, but I know some shittier router brands would often reset to factory defaults every time you updated the firmware. Can easily see starlink doing that with a pushed firmware with the expectation some additional cell phone app would restore the correct settings.
So they very well might have turned off broadcasting but it got popped back on while they were on shift and it was detected.
Don’t worry! I’m sure the default username and password didn’t get changed either.
He’s so weirdly childish.
He’s so weird
ly childish.
And I’m sure whoever put it there faced way more harsher penalties than a certain someone who willfully hid highly classified documents in his bathroom for months and lied about it to investigators.
According to Navy Times, reduction in rank. According to my experience, likely going to be told they can’t re-enlist after the end of their current term. Likely shipped stateside and in charge of mowing the lawn somewhere.
Just like a certain someone who had classified documents that they weren’t even supposed to have without a handler!
To make matters even worse…
The chiefs found that the Wi-Fi signal coming off the Starlink satellite transceiver couldn’t cover the entire ship, so during a stop in Pearl Harbor, they bought “signal repeaters and cable” to extend coverage.
Dude isn’t American. More money than a sovereign nation. Space level ballistic capabilities. Openly aligned with our enemies and their values.
How the fuck does he have a penny of my federal fucking tax dollars? We’re funding fucking terrorists that don’t even need the subsidies.
Here’s the meat and potatoes of the article.
In 2023, they decided that the best way to deal with the problem was to secretly bolt a Starlink terminal to the “O-5 level weatherdeck” of a US warship.
They called the resulting Wi-Fi network “STINKY”—and when officers on the ship heard rumors and began asking questions, the leader of the scheme brazenly lied about it. Then, when exposed, she went so far as to make up fake Starlink usage reports suggesting that the system had only been accessed while in port, where cybersecurity and espionage concerns were lower.
Rather unsurprisingly, the story ends badly, with a full-on Navy investigation and court-martial.
