A group of Navy sailors secretly used Starlink to check sports scores, social media and watch movies. They hid it from rank-and-file.

A U.S. Navy chief who wanted the internet so she and other enlisted officers could scroll social media, check sports scores and watch movies while deployed had an unauthorized Starlink satellite dish installed on a warship and lied to her commanding officer to keep it secret, according to investigators.

Internet access is restricted while a ship is underway to maintain bandwidth for military operations and to protect against cybersecurity threats.

The Navy quietly relieved Grisel Marrero, a command senior chief of the littoral combat ship USS Manchester, in August or September 2023, and released information on parts of the investigation this week.

  • espentan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    I’d be curious to see the dish install. It’s hard to imagine how someone would think it’d go unnoticed, on a warship, no less.

      • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.brEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        I tough they changed the name to stinky for the lulz but it was the default name imposed by the childbrain. Amazing opsec.

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        Ugh, Elon continues to have the absolute most inane sense of humor on the planet. I’m not sure if it’s him or Zuck who are more clearly aliens wearing human skin

        • Telorand@reddthat.comEnglish
          0·
          8 days ago

          It’s Zuck. Elon is just a perpetual 13yo. TBH, he’s not entirely unlike Peter Pan (from the book).

      • someguy3@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        Ship officers heard the scuttlebutt about STINKY, of course, and they began asking questions and doing inspections, but they never found the concealed device. On August 18, though, a civilian worker from the Naval Information Warfare Center was installing an authorized SpaceX “Starshield” device and came across the unauthorized SpaceX device hidden on the weatherdeck.

        Heh.

    • snooggums@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 days ago

      Multiple people were involved, and it was probably mounted in a location where other people were unlikely to know that it was out of place.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      Yeah, same. It’s not like there were windows they could point it out of, so it would have to be exposed and somehow disguised.

      Lol, in college, some guy on my floor wasn’t happy with the dorm’s cable TV because it didn’t have NFL Sunday Ticket and brought his DirecTV dish/receiver from home. His room was facing the right way, so he was able to set the dish up in the room next to the window. This sortof reminds me of that but without the national security implications.