The officers of a US warship not wanting to be isolated from the internet had secretly installed a satellite dish with a connection to Starlink on their ship.
The truth is that nowadays it is difficult to live without Wi-Fi. And when the workplace requires complete privacy and isolation from the outside world, then employees find it difficult to live without access to their Gmail and Facebook.
There are jobs where safety is the primary concern. And these are usually Government Services, such as the army, Ministries, embassies, EYP, etc. It is very dangerous for the national security of a country for Government files to fall into the hands of third parties.
As a result of this, large sums are spent on Government IT and most importantly to block unauthorized access both inwards and outwards.
And Government officials in order to communicate online with the outside world are taking security into their own hands with creative, but rather unauthorized, solutions.
For example, a former US ambassador to Kenya in 2015 caught being on the internet while in the embassy bathroom, the only place where he could use his personal computer (!) to access an unsecured network (!!) that allowed him to log into Gmail (!!!). From the same place, he simultaneously did a large part of his official business activities, essentially breaking the rules and security policies of the embassy.
The new news comes to us about the captain and senior staff of the US warship USS Manchester, who did not like the Navy's restriction of internet access.
In 2023, they decided the best way to deal with the problem was to secretly bolt a Starlink terminal to the "O-5 level deck" of their US warship.
They didn't even change the name of Elon Musk's default Wi-Fi network called “STINKY”. According to the Navy Times the connection was used to update sports scores, to exchange messages with their homes and to stream movies.
And although the military has raised a sense of responsibility and security, their whole decision had a stronger reason: People have become addicted to accessing the Internet.
They want it, even when they are at sea on sensitive naval missions in Asia, where concern about Chinese surveillance and hacking is acute.
So the female captain of the USS Manchester, Grisel Marrero bought a Starlink for $2.800 and installed it on the ship's deck. The system was only intended for use by senior officers and not junior officers or most enlisted personnel, and the Navy's investigation revealed that at least 15 officers were involved in the stunt.
Officers found that the Wi-Fi signal coming from the Starlink satellite transceiver could not cover the entire ship, so during a stop at Pearl Harbor, they purchased "signal repeaters and cable" to extend the coverage(!).
The other sailors on the ship naturally saw in the middle of nowhere that there was a network named STINKY and started asking questions about it. Some of these questions were directed directly at Governor Marrero, but she denied knowing anything about the network, and then changed its Wi-Fi name to another name that sounded like a wireless printer, even though there were no such universal wireless printers. on the ship.
Marrero went so far as to remove relevant questions from the "suggestion box" to the ship's commander to avoid detection.
On August 18, 2023, however, a civilian working for the Naval Information Warfare Center while installing an authorized SpaceX “Starshield” device encountered the unauthorized SpaceX device hidden on the deck.
Marrero's attempt to fake data that indicated the illegal system had only been used at the ports failed spectacularly due to her inaccurate answers. At that point, it was game over and the Navy SEAL looked into the whole situation.
Those who used or even simply knew of its existence without disclosing it, were imposed "administrative, non-judicial punishment". Marrero herself was relieved of her post after pleading guilty during a court-martial held in the spring.
