Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has warned that the Starlink satellite internet service might be "targeted" in Ukraine.
This appeal comes following Russia's repeated bombing of Ukraine's government-owned internet infrastructure.
Musk, on the other hand, issued a critical warning through Twitter. He claims that providing internet access via satellites can be used against them.
Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
Elon Musk: Starlink Satellites Could Be Attacked, Use With Caution
According to Musk, the Starlink satellite internet service has a "high" chance of being attacked because it is a non-Russian communications infrastructure.
"Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so [the] probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution," Elon Musk said in a tweet.
He encouraged consumers only to use Starlink when necessary. He also advised that users can camouflage the antennas in some way.
Turn on Starlink only when needed and place antenna away as far away from people as possible
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Elon Musk's SpaceX delivered a truck full of Starlink user terminals, as promised.
Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, posted a photo of Starlink terminals around the country.
However, he stated that the country needs generators to keep the Starlink service operational due to Russian infrastructure strikes.
Musk responded by saying that SpaceX was upgrading software to lower peak power usage so that cigarette lighters in cars could power Starlink.
"Mobile roaming enabled, so phased array antenna can maintain signal while on moving vehicle," he added in a tweet.
Updating software to reduce peak power consumption, so Starlink can be powered from car cigarette lighter.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2022
Mobile roaming enabled, so phased array antenna can maintain signal while on moving vehicle.
ALSO READ: Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites Redirected for Ukraine Could Become Russia's New Target
Thousands of Starlink satellites orbit the Earth, allowing SpaceX to beam internet services over the globe without using fiber-optic connections.
Suppose Ukraine's Internet infrastructure is disrupted due to Russia's strike. In that case, the satellites may keep the country online.
Business Standard said SpaceX has launched over 1,747 Starlink satellites so far, with a total of over 40,000 planned.
Here's How People Could Attack Starlink Satellites
View the Jhon F. Kennedy school -the first place in Latin America to test Starlink satellite internet- in Sotomo, Los Lagos Region in southern Chile, on August 8, 2021. - South African billionaire Elon Mask's SpaceX company's Starlink started to deliver internet access Friday in Chile, making it the first country in Latin America and the southern hemisphere to have access to this experimental service.
Reuters said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab project at the University of Toronto, took to Twitter to voice his fear that the terminals might become targets of the Russian government.
Scott-Railton said on Twitter that Russia has a long history of attacking people by intercepting their satellite communications.
2/ #Russia has decades of experience hitting people by targeting their satellite communications.
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) February 27, 2022
In 1996, Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev was careful, but Russian aircraft reportedly found his satphone call & killed him with a missile strike.https://t.co/lGA2Cg3HiO pic.twitter.com/jdxo931LLq
He detailed the perils of attacking satellite communications in 15 tweets.
As a result, according to Scott-Railton, the Russian military may locate and fire satellite signals from the ground in Ukraine.
He also mentioned that the Russian military had used the tactic in the past with devastating results in Chechnya and Syria.
The hazards are unrelated to whether or not the communications are encrypted, according to Scott-Railton per CNN, because devices don't need to be eavesdropped on by the adversary - they only need to produce distinct enough signals to be tracked down and perhaps identified.
He also pointed out that because Starlink is still a relatively new technology, it hasn't been thoroughly tested in combat to discover and analyze its vulnerabilities.
A request for response from a US military official was not returned. The US military has long recognized the hazards of employing satellite technology in combat zones. Because of the security and intelligence dangers, both parties in the Iraq conflict outlawed satellite phones in 2003.
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