Ukraine security agency: Starlink puts Ukrainian soldiers at ‘increased risk’
A Ukraine security agency says Starlink, which has helped Ukraine keep its battlefield communications live, puts Ukrainian soldiers at “increased risk” from cyber-spies who belong to a Russian-led espionage group in occupied Crimea. The group has been known to Western security agencies for almost a decade. After a Russia sympathizer was jailed for plotting to disrupt Western arms supplies by blowing up transport infrastructure, Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) urged soldiers to install advanced anti-hacker software, saying:
Computers located outside the [computer security] protection perimeter, in particular those that use Starlink terminals to access the Internet, are at increased risk.
The CERT-UA warning comes as the agency shed fresh light on the actions of an espionage-focused hacker gang known in the West as Gamaredon, whose members were described by CERT-UA as “former ‘officers’ of the State Security Service of Ukraine” who “betrayed their military oath and began to serve the FSB [spy agency] of Russia.” (The SSSU says Gamaredon is led by five Russian intelligence agency officers.) Immediately before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Gamaredon “tried to compromise a Western government entity in Ukraine” according to US cyber security company Palo Alto Networks.
Musk will continue to cover Ukraine Starlink costs
Despite earlier tweeting that SpaceX could not fund Starlink ‘indefinitely’, Musk says he will continue to pay for Starlink to cover Ukraine. SpaceX has told the US government that Ukraine’s use of Starlink has already cost $80 million and could cost close to $400 million over the next 12 months.
The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free
The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022
When a Twitter user told Musk “No good deed goes unpunished”, he replied:
Even so, we should still do good deeds.
Even so, we should still do good deeds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 15, 2022
Peace is a possibility
Poroshenko says peace is possible if Russian President Vladimir Putin is in the right mood. In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour he says:
Sometimes, the position of Mr. Putin is quite pragmatic, sometimes it is very emotional. I just try to find out the time when he is more pragmatic than emotional.
Putin puts troops on alert
On the first day of Ukraine’s cease fire directive, Putin puts the military on alert in the central district and resumes airborne troop drills. The alert will continue through June 28. 65,000 troops will take part in military drills under this combat alert.