New York (CNN Business)SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a truckload of Starlink antennas — which can be used to connect to the company’s satellite-based internet service — to Ukraine this week, responding to a plea from the country’s vice prime minister amid fears that Ukrainians could lose internet access if Russia continues its attacks on communication infrastructure.
But using satellite services can be dangerous in wartime, as evidenced by a history of states using satellite signals to geolocate and target enemies, cybersecurity experts told CNN Business.
“If an adversary has a specialized plane aloft, it can detect [a satellite] signal and home in on it,” Nicholas Weaver, a security researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, said via email. “It isn’t necessarily easy, but the Russians have a lot of practice on tracking various signal emitters in Syria and responding. Starlink may work for the moment, but anyone setting a [Starlink] dish up in Ukraine needs to consider it as a potential giant target.”
In short: “It may be useful, but for safety’s sake you don’t want to set it (or really any distinctive emitter) up in Ukraine anywhere close to where you would not want a Russian bomb dropping,” Weaver said.
Shortly after this story was originally published, Musk also weighed in on Twitter, saying “Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine, so probability of being targeted is high. Please use with caution.”
He went on to advise users in Ukraine to “turn on Starlink only when needed and place antenna away as far away from people as possible,” and to “place light camouflage over antenna to avoid visual detection.”
It’s not clear how many Starlink terminals SpaceX sent to Ukraine, nor is it clear how the Ukrainian government plans to use or distribute them.
SpaceX’s foray into aiding Ukraine began when the country’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, issued a public plea to Musk on Twitter last weekend, saying, “while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand.” It was one in a string of tweets Fedorov directed at various US-based tech figureheads, imploring them to take action on Ukraine’s behalf.
Musk responded with offers to help, announced that the Starlink network was now activated in Ukraine, and, this week, a truckload of user terminals — which are required to give users access to the satellite-based internet service — arrived.
Fedorov shared a picture online.
And on Wednesday, he shared a photo of what appeared to be an active Starlink antenna at work.
Fedorov then acknowledged that he’d seen the warning Musk post
