this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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White House officials said the installation was an effort to increase internet availability at the complex. They said that some areas of the property could not get cell service and that the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was overtaxed.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago

Yalls remember the security concerns when that sailor secretly installed a star link on a US warship?

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 243 points 2 days ago (3 children)

In any healthy democracy, this would have been seen as a scandal exposing signs of corruption and would have likely resulted in the dissolution of the government and early election.

But the US is not a healthy democracy.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 66 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The corruption is clear, obvious, and blatant. Everyone knows about it, but there’s not a whole lot they can do. A good chunk of our citizens picked it on purpose.

[–] whostosay@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

There is actually so much we and the courts/Congress can do. We're just choosing not to do it, unfortunately.

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[–] kautau@lemmy.world 59 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not to worry, "some cited security concerns." We're all set

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Besides the security concerns, I want to know what they’re using it for, and how much bullshit they’re hiding by avoiding the official network.

It’s certainly not a speed and convenience thing.

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[–] tabular@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Given it's unrepresentative voting system I think how much is enough to be a democracy. T hot take for people that see democracy. Two parties to choose from is just one more than a clear dictatorship. If neither actually represents you then yeah it's not healthy .

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Agreed, except for one point. It's an oligarchy. Our "dictator" was just selling cars on the White House lawn. Capitalism won to get to it's late stages, happy to let racist hatred and russian influence fester for continued capital self-interest

[–] Zier@fedia.io 146 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They literally installed spyware in the WH. National security is an utter joke with these traitors.

[–] Allonzee@lemmy.world 51 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This country was destroyed under Reagan. We needed a national security strategy against the capitalists back then and instead invited them into the government.

This is just the fire sale, the vultures picking the well rotted corpse clean. Reagan and Welch destroyed this place, don't give Trump that much credit. He's just an opportunist who saw profit in chaos.

The United States 1776-1980 - Died of thirst waiting for Promised Golden Showers of Prosperity that never came - Useful Idiots

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 47 points 2 days ago (3 children)

They said that some areas of the property could not get cell service and that the existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was overtaxed.

Starlink has absolutely nothing to do with either of those things...

[–] icmpecho@lemmy.ml 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

this was nothing that some Ethernet and some APs couldn't fix. and as for the cellular issues, you're literally the White House. Throw up a femtocell, you already have fiber for backhaul.

this is such fucking nonsense. Starlink is fixing precisely none of this.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean I think it's safe to say these issues never existed in the first place. Nothing but more fables from the liar in Chief.

[–] icmpecho@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

agree 100%, I just find what limited joy I can in pointing out that this is likely bullshit and at best a con. I also get a kick out of shitting on Musk for pretending to know what he's talking about when it comes to tech :)

[–] Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago

Amazing how the but her emails crowd is fine with all the private servers and now private internet access from Trump and co

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[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 118 points 2 days ago (5 children)

If you live in the DC area, absolutely do NOT sign up for this service.

100% chance that the government, as well as musks companies would be monitoring you directly 24/7.

[–] arf@lemmy.today 36 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I wholeheartedly agree.

However, it's hard to say that AT&T, Comcast, Cox and the like aren't all doing the same thing.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 26 points 2 days ago

The way I see stuff like this is that you don't have to hand over your information on a silver platter directly to the agents.

Like when a trainload of east germans was allowed to migrate to the west through a separate country, they just had to hand their passports to the Stasi before being let go.

When the Stasi agents came to the train to collect the passports the east germans just threw them on the floor instead of handing them over, that is kinda how this should be viewed.

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[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well now the Chinese and Russians just need to get a way into Shartlink and they can also monitor you and your government.

[–] brossman@infosec.pub 16 points 2 days ago (3 children)

they're already in, guaranteed

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[–] arc@lemm.ee 31 points 2 days ago

I do not believe for a second that communications within the Whitehouse are inadequate, or if they were, could not be solved in a secure manner. Slapping a Starlink in a few places sounds like an invitation to backdoor all communications. Not only that, it is an invitation to sidestep obligations to preserve government records.

[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 38 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah yes, because what the white house needs is an inferior ISP to plug the gaps that could easily be filled by proper wireless access point configuration and distribution.

This is definitely not going to come back to haunt us later.

[–] icmpecho@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

depending on how badly Starlink fucks up the deployment, this could actually make the performance worse especially if airtime and spectrum are limited which I would assume would be the case. Elon throwing APs every which way isn't likely to make that any better.

this is like getting a flat tire on your handcart and buying a G Wagon with no wheels to fix it.

[–] Snapz@lemmy.world 40 points 2 days ago

Are you a white house staffer carrying a heavy stack of top secret documents? Do you desperately need both hands to vape or to text roger stone a progress report? Try DOCDASH!

Just request a docdasher in app and a helpful person like Yvegeny, Dmitri or Boris will show up to the white house on a motorcycle, take your documents from you, not copy and transmit them, and just keep them very safe, like tippy top safe.

[–] SnortsGarlicPowder@lemmy.zip 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Somebody is going to have to explain to me how starlink is going to boost WiFi availability if it is routed from offsite using their current fibre network.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yeah, this doesn't make sense to me. Starlink needs a dish that has to be outside without trees covering it, so it isn't like they can place new routers around the building that receive Starlink and have wifi capability. They will still have to run a cable from the dish(es?) to new wireless routers. How is that ANY different from just running new wireless routers from their existing fiber?

[–] ECB@feddit.org 6 points 2 days ago

It's literally not any different. Starlink is just a less-reliable broadband internet connection, it has nothing to do with WiFi

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[–] Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee 56 points 2 days ago (3 children)

"some areas of the property could not get cell service"

Like the bunkers? Like hell did the white house not have cell service.

[–] dhork@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I can believe areas of the White House have no cell service, on purpose. Remember when they found those fake cell towers around DC?

https://www.wired.com/story/dcs-stingray-dhs-surveillance/

I bet at some point they installed some cell phone jammers specifically to limit the amount of foreign spying that could be done by fake towers, and they simply "forgot" to tell the incoming Trump administration....

[–] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 29 points 2 days ago

probably more likely they fired the original IT team and replaced them with Muskite interns

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[–] a_postmodern_hat@lemmy.world 37 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Musk is literally a James Bond villain. Literally. Like LITERALLY a Bond villain.

Edit: minus the genius and charisma

[–] ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Imagine how galling this must be for Jeff Bezos. He's put so much effort into his Bond villain persona. The guy even now looks like Dr Evil. But he's being out eviled by a pudgy, dorky-looking South African nepo-baby.

[–] madjo@feddit.nl 17 points 2 days ago

He even bought the James Bond license from the Broccoli family!

[–] EaterOfLentils@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Minus the genius and charisma"

You're describing an Austin Powers villain.

[–] Droechai@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Goldmember got charisma in droves though

[–] EaterOfLentils@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Would you like a shmoke and a pancake?

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Starlink should be abolished.

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[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was “overtaxed” so they just threw up satellite instead of , I don’t know, improving the Wi-Fi infrastructure? There’s perfectly fine WiFi at sprawling work and college campuses, and stadiums that seat tens of thousands of people. What a joke.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

Network infrastructure is a science and we don't need no damn science in this country!

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago (2 children)

FFS, can we deal with these fucking traitors already?!?

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[–] miss_demeanour@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 2 days ago

President Musk making it feel more like home.
Add 13 children of ambiguous parentage he can ignore, and snug as a bug!

[–] Allonzee@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

Enjoy the high latency.

[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago

Are they then routing all starlink traffic to Russia?

[–] _LordMcNuggets_@feddit.org 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Anyone see the Johnny English with the American billionaire cyber-terrorist Jason Volta as the main antagonist?

That's how I see news coming from Washington developing on a daily basis.

We need you Rowan Atkinson.

[–] 9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

It would be a shame if some foreign actor could monitor Starlink internal networks.

[–] shades@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

Shoulda put a Trojan on that trojan.

[–] EaterOfLentils@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

I am all for making the White House less secure at this point.

[–] VoodooAcupuncture@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Security concerns? No need to eavesdrop on electronics when they have Tulsi to just tell them everything.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 days ago

So they routed all traffic in the WH through his sattelites, yay. Do I understand correctly that being an internet provider (and as WH can be singled out) means he can now know what resources everyone there access and force many proxy\VPN options shut? So he can get at least basic understanding if someone access matrix servers or whatever to leak data critical of DOGE, to block things he doesn't like (e.g. live streaming broadcast for select journalists) or just to get one more reason to fire everyone?

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