We gained exclusive access to Ukrainian cyberwarfare specialists and front line intelligence officers for our new @thetimes documentary, The Starlink Hack That Fooled Russian Forces... 1/
Tens of thousands of Starlink satellite receivers have been smuggled into Russia via Central Asia, Turkey and the Middle East. Russian soldiers were able to use them to increase the range of their attack drones, as well as make them more accurate and difficult to jam... 2/
When @elonmusk and @SpaceX agreed to introduce a registration requirement for any Starlink on Ukrainian territory, the Russians were suddenly blinded. Desperate soldiers sought Ukrainians willing to register their Starlinks for cash. @256CyberAssault spotted an opportunity. 3/
Acting like IT support, they used an AI chatbot to gather data from the Russians in stages, starting with innocuous requests for serial numbers and culminating in a request for the Starlink’s GPS co-ordinates. 4/
The co-ordinates revealed Russian headquarters, command posts and drone pilot positions. The hackers turned them over to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, or gave them directly to Ukrainian brigades they knew were fighting near by... 5/
One such brigade was 128th Heavy Mechanised Brigade, which is fighting Russian forces in the village of Plavni. When we visited, the pace of attacks was relentless, with new intelligence coming in daily and the brigade’s drone teams striking target after target... 6/
Russian strikes on the brigade's lines have fallen 45 per cent thanks to the shutdown of @Starlink terminals and strikes enabled by obtaining co-ordinates of Russian positions, said Yaro, an intel officer for the 128th. 7/ You can watch the full film here:
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.