The world’s richest businessman is also waging his own war against Russia. Starlink engineers, one of Elon Musk’s businesses, try to prevent Russian hackers from disabling the satellites of the US company, one of the main internet providers in the war-torn territories.
“Starlink has so far resisted Russian Cyberwar hacking and jamming attempts, but they are stepping up their efforts,” Musk tweeted late on Tuesday.
Starlink is a division of his aerospace company SpaceX and its goal is to bring internet to remote areas where there is no cable coverage. As the system works through more than 2,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, the company can supply internet even to bombed areas where the local network has been destroyed, as has been the case in many parts of Ukraine since it was invaded.
But it not only serves as an alternative when the physical network has been destroyed, but also as a tool to prevent Russian cyberattacks. According to a , since the war began, Russia has carried out 237 computer attacks, two of them against Internet providers, with the aim of “interrupting the population’s access to reliable information and vital services, as well as undermining trust in the leaders of the country.”
This Tuesday it has also been revealed that Russia was responsible for a very powerful large-scale computer attack that took place hours before the start of the invasion, on February 24, which left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Europeans without internet. The malware, called AcidRain -rain of acid- was suffered by the American internet company Viasat and even struck down thousands of internet routers that .
In this context of unprecedented cyber aggressiveness, the next target of the Russians is Elon Musk’s company, which has happened to have more than 1,000 in Ukraine since the war began for the security offered by its system.
In fact, its firewall has even been recognized by the US military. Dave Tremper, who heads cyberwarfare in the defense secretary’s office, told a conference in April that Musk’s response to hackers left him “astonished.” “They put in one line of code and the attack was rendered inoperative,” he added.
Starlink is a must for Ukraine
In order to connect to these satellites, you need a small kit consisting of an antenna that is only sold by Musk’s company, and in recent weeks it has sent 5,000 of them to Ukraine through the US government.
The Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, who is responsible for bringing this technology to Ukraine, has reiterated that this service is now “essential” for his country.
“Is Starlink necessary?” Federov tweeted at the end of April, explaining that at this point it would be impossible to restore a 10-kilometre cable connection that had been destroyed in the north-east of the country. “Another case: the Internet provider Baryshivkanet restored the connection to the network in five villages using only one satellite.”
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