Elon Musk has confirmed that Russia is increasing its efforts to disrupt Starlink satellite service in Ukraine. At the beginning of the Russian invasion, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla sent hundreds of antennas to guarantee internet connection, especially in areas remote or where the local infrastructure collapsed.
The confirmation comes after the publication of a Reuters report revealing that Russia was behind a massive cyberattack on Viasat, another Starlink-like satellite network that disabled thousands of modems in late February. Probably as a measure to disrupt internet connections in Ukraine.
The attack occurred shortly after the Russian invasion. The objective was to destabilize Ukrainian military communications at the beginning of the war, but it ended up affecting many other European countries.
So far, the Viasat cyberattack has been the most visible, from a public view, by Russia since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine. Not only because of the connectivity problems caused throughout Europe, but also because the affected modems had to be physically replaced. Restarting them or updating the system didn't fix them.
But Viasat wasn't the only satellite network the Russians tried to attack. Starlink has also been the victim of hacking attempts or denial of service attacks, although they have not been successful so far.
“Starlink, for now, has resisted hacking and blocking attempts of Russia, but their efforts are increasing. explained Elon Musk on Twitter.
This is not the first time that Elon Musk has warned of attempts to attack Starlink in Ukraine
This is not the first time that Elon Musk has warned of attempts to attack Starlink in Ukraine. Months ago the CEO of Tesla begged to be very careful when exposing the antennas because they can become targets of a bombardment from the air.
“Important warning: Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system which still works in some parts of Ukraine, so the probability of being targeted is high. Please usewith caution,” was what he said last March on his Twitter account.
Musk seconded the words of CNN experts who explained that Russia has specialized aircraft in the air that can detect satellite signals and mark them as targets for attack, including those from Starlink antennas.”It's not easy, but the Russians already have a lot of practice doing tracking of signal emitters in Syria”, said one of the sources of the news network.
Russia is so frustrated with Starlink that days ago the head of the Russian space agency, Dmitry Rogozin made a veiled threat to Elon Musk, arguing that he will be held responsible for his “contributions to Ukraine in the war”.
