this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 73 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Isn't that a massive security risk?

Like, what if the U.S was using Roscosmos satellite links in drones? I'd certainly be raising an eyebrow.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, but it's not a government satellite system, it's an independent Internet provider. It is always possible that the US government/military has access on the back end, but that's not guaranteed. And since Ukraine is using Starlink, they can't exactly just disable all access in the region.

Kind of makes sense for Russia to try and use Starlink at least a bit to test the waters and see what sort of Intel the US has access to directly through it.

[–] MartianSands@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is guaranteed, actually. US law imposes requirements on telecoms providers to support wire taps

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

A wiretap is different than having something like backdoor access at will for military use.

[–] Dioxid3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Don me a tinfoil hat, but I think it is absolutely within the realm of possible that half my networked electronics has a backdoor to one or another governmentsl agency. Or that my ”encrypted” WhatsApp conversations are available to US officials if need be.

Luckily I am as interesting as a slice of bread gone stale

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Oh I'm sure that's the case for nearly all large social media and network systems based on the US. I'm also willing to bet that for some of these companies, almost no one even knows it's there, either because a 3 letter agency put it there themselves without being noticed, or an employee implemented it for them without corporate approval.

The US is worried about other countries doing this because we 100% are doing it ourselves. From a national security perspective, it's basically common sense. Ensure you have access to everything, even if you don't use it now, you might in the future and it will save time.

[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

Yeah, sure, if it was an adversary like the U.S. government and not a Russian ally like Elon Musk...