this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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[–] mriguy@lemmy.world 38 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

If all White House communications go through Starlink, Musk has access to all of it, to use as he sees fit. Blackmail, enriching himself, selling to the highest bidder. Great move for him financially.

[–] MimicJar@lemmy.world 16 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I mean I'm hoping all communication is over SSL/TLS so he would likely only have DNS information.

Not to say this isn't absolutely horrible and unnecessary, but it isn't likely as bad as it could be. (Unless Starlink does some man-in-the-middle attacks, and/or has full control of the White House systems to install Starlink certificates, which is a possibility.)

[–] thedeadwalking4242@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago

Could still do man in the middle attacks by fucking with the Certs technically

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 10 points 23 hours ago

May be that official comms are MITMed by the three letters, as they should be, and they need a secure channel to commit treason on.

[–] Tronn4@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Starlink tax breaks next year

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 59 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How the fuck does one of the biggest governments in the world with access to a top tier it department think the upgrade is starlink and not another fibre cable or more access points. Whatever the problem starlink for a city building is not the solution.

Because there is a horse loose in the hospital.

This happened before, and we thought it was such a fun time that we invited the horse back to the hospital. The horse is loose in the hospital again, and we are here for it. That’s what they’re telling us.

Help please let me out of the hospital

[–] meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Do you really think the White House does not currently have a fiber connection?

The most likely scenario: this is all just a show.

They'll install a bunch of antennas and of course pay Dear Leader's favorite little drug addict indecent amounts of money, but in the background nothing will change and they'll use the existing, sane infrastructure.

[–] steal_your_face@lemmy.ml 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Maybe they want a connection that government regulators or security can’t monitor

[–] meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 15 hours ago

Yeah that's another thought I had...a line that isn't documented like all the other white house lines

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 7 points 1 day ago

Of course it has fibre but I was pointing out the fact that if there is an upgrade required the answer is always going to be another fibre line, more switches and more APs before lets get space internet that sucks in high capacity environments.

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Musk is in financial trouble so another government contract would help him a lot. Krasnov is feeds his loyal lackeys. Witness the outrageous White House Tesla car sales stunt.

[–] Akuchimoya@startrek.website 5 points 1 day ago

I don't believe nothing will change. I do believe Musk will capture communications and use it to monitor people he believes are his biggest enemies, then use it to best-case blackmail them, worst-case have them arrested in trumped-up (no pun intended) charges.

Random unknown people are being kidnapped, tortured, and sold internationally as slaves by the government. These are the cases we know about because they are getting to the media. How many are not getting through the Right-supporting media? Do we really think actual opponents aren't just waiting targets?

[–] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 25 points 1 day ago

Hmmm, monitoring employees and funneling info, huh?

[–] boreengreen@lemm.ee 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I question if this fulfills security requirements.

[–] jagged_circle@feddit.nl 11 points 1 day ago

Well probably the other way around. To protect DOGE from oversight

[–] AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 day ago

I don't. I'm sure it doesn't.

[–] Sanctus@lemmy.world 125 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because Musk has mad conflicts of interest

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 30 points 1 day ago

A laundry list

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Because unlike fiber, which you can install and reasonably expect to work with minimal maintenance or other costs for years, Starlink has a guaranteed revenue stream by way of planned obsolescence. We will be constantly launching satellites to keep up replacement of the ones that are deorbitted, and that cost will naturally be passed on to the taxpayer.

Not that fiber installs aren't also a grift. After all, how many times has the American taxpayer paid for rural broadband?

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Starlink is the purest definition of "space junk."

[–] notsoshaihulud@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

“Orbiting vintage space equipment “

[–] thallamabond@lemmy.world 69 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"Are you suggesting I don't understand Wi-Fi?", US Press secretary... Probably

[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ominous voice: "She doesn't."

It’s not ominous; that’s just the narrator. It’s their job to sound serious. Simply professional courtesy, you see.

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, yes I am. Can you tell me which security standard you are using? WEP or WPA? (If they answer WPA) And which type?

[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Don't mock them. Snowflakes will remove WPA just because they can't explain it hence it's bad and you've got nothing to hide if you're not guilty. So no more wireless protection and police are allowed to connect and check your home networks without a warrant.

[–] meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Oh yes, please do "improve"... With the Starlink priority plans you'll have amazing speeds such as 40-220 Mbps down/8-25 Mbps up 😂😂

They're gonna shit their pants with excitement when they experience these speeds^^

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don’t forget the latency and QoS that’ll probably be done haphazardly limiting everyone to just a sliver of the total available bandwidth.

[–] slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't thing latecy is a problem when you only use it to watch child porn

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 1 points 1 day ago

Regardless of what it’s being used for, sending data to low orbit rather than across fiber optic will always have more latency.

[–] AndyMFK@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yikes I had no idea the speeds were so bad. Even my Australian internet is significantly faster

[–] meme_historian@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I mean it's a great product. For anyone living in a place where Fiber, 5G, or even a classic ADSL connection isn't available. If you use it in a well developed area that would offer you any of the above, you're a moron

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

They'll be able to drive home and shit in the comfort of their own homes with those speeds. They'll have dumped their load before the page loads.

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

They have zero idea. It's bidirectional satellite, and not low-latency, so...ELON SAID SO

[–] KickMeElmo@sopuli.xyz 53 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Eh, it's decently low latency. Around 40ms or so. That doesn't make it useful for them though. There's absolutely no -legitimate- reason for it in the white house. As for illegitimate reasons, why could Musk possibly want a connection inside the white house that has no oversight other than his own...?

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (3 children)

60+Ms at a minimum is not low latency. What are you on about? I have 10ms from coast to coast on residential fiber.

Government installs which were previously on fiber are being switched to this bullshit. Fiber international interconnect to Australia right now is 13ms from DC to Sydney. Big fucking difference.

[–] magdalar@lemm.ee 14 points 1 day ago

15,700+km from DC to Sydney, which is 52+ms at light speed....

[–] Loce@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

It might depend on location and congestion, but usually it is under 25ms on average.

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Gathering blackmail.

[–] ThanksObama@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day ago

That's just the new direct line to our great comrade Putties poot.

[–] MuskyMelon@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Grifters gonna grift

[–] thefluffiest@feddit.nl 6 points 1 day ago

Because now Mush gets to monitor all that is done and said digitally in the whole government

[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Like his semen he spreads his companies everywhere.

[–] Helvetica@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

Because trump wants to reward leon for his servitude and contributions with a huge ass government contract.

Starlink is free the first month, but after that it's 19,999,999.00 a month. Data theft is a free bonus.

[–] Hobbes_Dent@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It’s in series for rubes.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

It's a good backup internet service to avoid BIFF. But it reads like they are piping in internet from a datacenter, so just using starlink as an ISP.

Why? $$$. I bet the whitehouse spends a lot on internet.

Also, it's probably really easy to perform traffic inspection using starlink vs an established, regulated ISP.