According to a report from Ukrainian website Defense Express, Russian drones are now actively using Starlink hardware for “unlimited” communication over Ukraine’s territory. This past week, Kyiv’s defense forces shot down 28 drones sent as part of Russia’s attack on the Kharkiv region, and some Starlink-branded equipment was seen among the wreckage for the first time.
Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about but wouldn’t starlink know the serial numbers or Mac addresses of the dishes they gave to Ukraine? Couldn’t they easily filter that region so only those work?
They probably can do that, but a lot of the connections Ukraine are using will have been donated by third parties, rather than directly purchased by the Ukrainians. How do they tell the difference between those, and someone claiming to be doing that then shipping the dishes to Russia?
Have the Ukrainian government submit their MAC addresses?
Which would mean that every single StarLink system in Ukraine would have to be registered with the Government, even the ones owned by private citizens. They’d have to be in person registrations as well because any automated system, such as a website, could be used by Russia to get their own gear registered.
Why would private ones need to be registered?
Mobile GPS is artificially disabled above a certain ground speed to prevent them being used as bootleg missile guidance systems.
Just put a speed limit on Starlink dishes, and then if you want to permit one side to use them simply whitelist those MACs. Perhaps the real reason is that a private company doesn’t want to be seen as choosing sides or maybe there are implications for international rules of war.
Ukraine is under martial law, so privacy rights (especially involving something like MAC addresses which Starlink already has, not to mention that most citizens still in country can’t afford it in the first place) are far down on the list. It’s an unfortunate cost of Russia’s invasion. The Ukrainians have already done similar things with cell-based devices, it’s not some massive undertaking that would be new to them. It’s not like they’d make it front page news, either.
Really, it’s not even just Ukraine that could do something. Starlink can too, but because maintaining lists has no ROI they won’t until they’re forced.