• resetbypeer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    arrow-down
    25
    ·
    2 months ago

    As much as I hate Elon for all the shit he says and does, but it also shows the sanctioning for stuff like this is not waterproof. These units can be bought by company X in country X and sells it to company Y in country Y who is friendly with Russia. Also depending where they get launched from (for example from occupied Ukraine) it makes it also difficult to tell “friend” from “foe”. Can that be prevented ? Probably, but it’s not as straightforward as armchair generals may make it sound.

    Now, could spaceX do something more about this ? Most likely. But that is resources you need to put on this, which is not profitable. So long story short. It’s more than Elon bad here.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      2 months ago

      They could probably prevent 99.999% of this with a list of starlink devices in ukraine, a list devices geolocated to the vicinity, and a single part time employee.

      • TechAnon@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 months ago

        Couldn’t these easily triangulate a location since there’s a long string of satellites?

    • piecat@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      2 months ago

      Look at this article from March 2024: https://robertgarcia.house.gov/media/in-the-news/cnbc-house-democrats-probe-spacex-over-alleged-illegal-export-and-use-starlink

      In a statement on Thursday, the congressmen wrote, “Russia’s use of Starlink satellite terminals would be in contravention of U.S. export controls that prohibit Russia from acquiring and utilizing U.S.-produced technology.”

      So the equipment has to fall into the wrong hands, through a somehow compromised supply chain. Maybe that could happen without starlink knowing, but they really should have figured that out in march. They should have very easily identified the units that were potentially compromised by auditing shipping logs.

      Not only did the supply chain have to be compromised, but also the subscription and payments system… How did they not catch it on the subscription payment side? Now in addition to a compromised supply chain, a financial institution was compromised? At the least, they didn’t do their due dilligance in customer verification.

      How could russia have set up the equipment without some level of development and testing? Geolocation should have given that development away.

      Now, could spaceX do something more about this ? Most likely. But that is resources you need to put on this, which is not profitable.

      Yeah good point, that’s called “negligence”. Not doing due dilligance or taking the necessary steps to avoid breaking the law, because it isn’t profitable, isn’t a valid legal defense.

      It really would have been as simple as geofencing against devices that weren’t preauthorized or whitelisted.

      • resetbypeer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Yepp those are for sure valid points. Seems that it’s not such a “high” prio for our Trump lover.